Naruto: Change of dreams
by Fgh8tr Animal
Summary: Naruto has never been an idiot but also not a genius. He is just a normal kid with average intelligence and a lot of common sense. Circumstances in life made him grow faster, stronger and mature early in life but what happens when a tragedy makes him see how little he actually understood. Also with people trying to manipulate him at every corner doesn't help much.
1. The Beginning

Konohagakure no sato one of the five great ninja villages. A prosperous village full of life and for a dictatorship quite easygoing. It is surrounded by dense forests said to be created by Shodime Hokage, Senju Hashirama. It had always a warm climate except on rainy and winter season. It was one of the best place to stay without the worry of life threatening dangers.

Today in the village a festival is organized like every year to celebrate the victory of Konoha over Kyuubi, but like every year I'll be hunted down. Hello everybody! My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I'm 7 years old. I don't know why every year since I can remember people mistreat and harass me except a few like my ANBU guards: Dog, Cat, Crow and Dragon. My legal guardian Sarutobi Hiruzen, my teacher: Monkey King Enma and Ichiraku's. In all my years of misery I had to grow up fast. I'm quite intelligent, enjoy gathering information necessary for my survival when I'm not acting as an idiot, but no matter what I do there are 3 things I'm still not able to cut aside. First my verbal tick: Dattebayo, second: My temper and third: My over forgiving nature.

Children start learning to be a ninja when they enter the academy but I can't believe how delusional they are about the profession. If I could, I would prefer to be a normal civilian rather than be a trained killer but that is not an option for me so a trained killer it is. I learned about the energy required to be a ninja by Enma-sensei and learned how to harness it by a girl 2 years younger than me whom I saved from some bullies. Before she could tell me her name she was taken away by her guardians saying to not associate with me saying I was dangerous but as my second teacher I'll always remember her. After that over the years I learned many things. The Uchiha matriarch Uchiha Mikoto taught me Henge, Bushin and Replacement technique and its uses to protect myself yet I'm unable to produce a proper bushin. The Ackimichi clan head taught me about balanced diet and gave me an all you can eat pass at their family owned restaurant valid till the day I become a genin. The Yamanaka clan head and his wife taught me about plant life and told me to find out a way to release my stress and frustration, hence born was a prankster. The Nara clan head one day saw me getting caught after one of my pranks and after a few days gave me a book on strategies from basic to advanced battlefield tactics. When I asked him why was he helping me, he just said it was too troublesome to explain and went away. The Inuzuka's drove me mad. After they caught me after my prank on their compound, they made me clean their dog kennels for half a year and during that time the head of the clan after learning of my more than average senses. So she taught me how to further enhance them using chakra. The Aburame's were in a word just creepy not because they had a symbiotic relationship with bugs, the answer was NO. They were creepy because they showed no emotions and did everything according to logic. From the clan I didn't get any knowledge but a person to talk to and his name was Aburame Shino and for the first time in history somebody's parents actually forced their child to spend time with me since according to their logic the boy could loosen up with me around and I could think before I act with him around. I don't know why these important figures were trying to help me but one thing they all had in common was they had looks of guilt and sadness when they saw me but nonetheless I can become a ninja in less time thanks to what they taught me.

As Naruto was remembering and giving his thanks to everyone that has helped him while sitting in his hiding spot, a voice suddenly broke his trance like state.

"Hello demon brat! Ready to have some fun?" said a man wearing a flank jacket with a group of chunins in tow.

"Just leave me alone. I haven't done anything to anyone except for harmless pranks. Please don't torture me, again", pleaded Naruto while he was looking horrified since he knew he can't escape from a group of chunins. He had tried before and learn't that he didn't got caught after his pranks because they didn't even tried to catch him.

"Just don't spoil the fun brat. How could the festival be complete without fulfilling the tradition of fox hunt where you become the fox? So let's start the fun", said the man.

Naruto ran, he ran like there is no tomorrow if he stopped. The group of chunin pursued him, threw weapons at him and the people who saw Naruto threw objects at him. He was bruised, cut and bleeding. His nose was broken thanks to a woman who threw a pan at his face, all of his bones were hurting and he was plain exhausted. His guards or jiji still haven't came to save him. He then readied himself for torture or death but he wished for instant death, at least it would be painless. They caught him and took him to a place named forest of death. There they stripped him naked and crucified him to the trunk of a large tree. Two kunai to his palms with his arms wide apart and his legs hanging.

"SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME!" shouted Naruto in a desperate attempt to get some help.

Somewhere in a tower situated in the forest of death, a purple haired kunoichi who had just came in wasted by drinking her ass off and stomach full of dango heard the call of help but discarded it thinking it was her mind shouting just please help me and have a good night sleep. So she went to sleep.

A chunin started laughing seeing Naruto in vain and said- "Oh great kyuubi how can you be such an idiot? We know all about how the Hokage favor you and your gaurds care about you. Since the Hokage is meeting with the dignitaries and your guards are sent on a mission requested by us, you are in the first time in your life unprotected. Okay guys who wants to play dart?"

"No, no, no, no please just don't hurt me anymo...AAAAAAAHHHHHHH", just as Naruto was going to finish his sentence a chunin threw a rusted rod at his knee joint. Then another two threw rods at his other joints. They impaled all of his joints with rods, senbons or anything they could find while Naruto just screamed more and more in agony.

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Somewhere in the forest of death. "Just which idiot had thought it would be a good idea to train in the forest of death during the festival and got into trouble. Wait no one trains today except for ANBU and Gai. No one will enter the forest today for survival training just to be exhausted during the festival. Shit somebody has got Uzumaki and is torturing him in the forest. I've got to hurry ", thought Anko.

SUMMONING JUTSU

Two large cobras appeared out of thin air. Both of them were huge and looked like each of them could swallow an entire house.

"Hurry up! One of you go to Konoha and inform the Hokage or Anbu that Uzumaki is somewhere being tortured in the forest of death and the other come with me and help me locate the boy", said Anko.

"But miss Anko, we don't know the scent of this Uzumaki you say of. How can we even track him?", asked one of the summons.

"It doesn't matter just track the scent of the most fresh human blood in the forest spilled in a large quantity and hurry up we don't have time to spare", said Anko.

"Hai miss Anko", replied the snakes. One of them went towards Konoha and the other one started to search for Naruto with Anko standing on his head.

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The festival was finally over and all to remind of the festival was a large amount of closed stalls and groups of drunken people who were still drinking and dancing in celebration. Sarutobi was looking out of his office window with a smile. He was happy to see that the village was happy, celebrated, got extra income and on top of it no news about Naruto getting hurt came to him. He was thinking that finally the villagers were realizing that Naruto was not the Kyuubi but his thoughts were interrupted when he saw a humongous cobra coming towards his office and he knew something was wrong.

"Tell me what important news Anko wants delivered?", ordered Hiruzen.

"Lady Anko said some Uzumaki was being held in the forest of death and needed help to locate and rescue him", as each word the cobra spoke Hiruzen grew angrier and angrier and when the snake stopped a KI so powerful was unleashed in the village that it alerted everyone. In over 30 years every ninja knew one thing SARUTOBI HIRUZEN was pissed off.

"ANBU put the village on lockdown, inform every shinobi with high battle prowess to meet me at the entrance of forest of death and in full battle gear. Today there is going to be a carnage, I can feel it. Now go", shouted Hiruzen.

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(Forest of death)

Anko was disgusted. No what she was seeing could not be described in words how terribly disgusting it was. A boy just 7 years old was crucified naked, tortured and broken. The group of chunin were celebrating and congratulating each other how they had cleverly cut the boy away from the Hokage, his gaurds and did what was important. So she stealthily reached Naruto who looked at her with eyes void of any emotion but fear.

"Don't worry kid, I'm here to save you and sorry to be so late. Let me just take care of these idiots first and then we can get you to a safe place. By the way I'm Mitarashi Anko, what's your name?", asked Anko.

He was terrified. Is she trying to get my trust and betray me, like others? Is she even real or am I hallucinating? All these questions were troubling Naruto but to survive he decided to answer."My name is Uzumaki Naru..

"So the snake-bitch is trying to help the demon-brat. Today is truly a good day, we should kill both the monster and the whore. What do you say guys?" asked the leader and everyone agreed. So began a battle that would change Naruto forever.


	2. Death of Anko

Anko was hard pressed in battle. She may had been a student of a sanin and knew many of his skills but she lacked his battle sense and experience. She was strong for her age and her rank as a chunin but even then she was no match for a group of 20 chunins working together to kill her and Naruto. She knew to survive she had to abandon Naruto resulting in his death releasing the kyuubi or fight till death to protect Naruto resulting in her death. Only a quarter of her chakra was left thanks to summoning two giant reptiles, healing the brat and fighting the attackers. If she abandoned him now and he somehow survived she knew he will become a monster worse than Orochimaru. The odds were not in her favor. She loved her village even though many hated her but she knew most of the higher ups supported her. So she decided how her life will end but the great Anko-sama will not die without leaving her mark on the world.

Anko weaved through multiple hand signs and unleashed her very own jutsu.

Poison Mist Jutsu

A very dense fog of poison was unleashed on the environment. The flora and fauna both were immediately affected and started to change in color. The plants and animals were dying one after the other like a chain of dominos set in motion. Seeing the danger the attackers backed off and decided to wait since this kind of jutsu was normally chakra consuming. Sensing the attackers backed off Anko went through some hand signs.

Earth Dome.

A large mass of earth suddenly erupted and formed a dome around both herself and Naruto protecting Naruto against poison. She then activated a light tag illuminating the dark dome.

"Do you trust me brat?" asked Anko.

"I trust you nee-chan", answered Naruto as he witnessed to how great lengths she went just to save him.

"You have to understand gaki the world is not divided into good and bad. Everyone has a good and a bad side to them. The ones who get most of the things they want are powerful, may it be through money, influence, prestige or just anything. In this world power is mostly inherited may it be nobles, clan heirs, or just anyone. But one thing they all have in common is the knowledge they possess and their lack of drive to do anything new except gain more power. Then there are people like us ordinary turned special due to circumstances. People belittle us, fear us and downright hate us. Never let it get you down since they are fools. Work hard, forge your destiny with your own two hands, never look down on others, snatch every opportunity to learn from anyone, act intelligent and one day you will become powerful. Once you become powerful help everyone who deserves it but always show those who treated you badly whom they had messed up with. If you become strong enough fulfill my one wish and take down Orochimaru but if you can't, no hard feelings. She then summoned up two scrolls, one a rather large one and the other a regular sized one. Take the scrolls gaki, from now on they are yours. Consider them your birthday present and always live your life to its fullest", said Anko as she tossed him in a pit and covered it with a earth jutsu and that was the last time Naruto saw Anko.

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(Outside the forest of death)

Every clan head, high ranking members of the shinobi force came prepared in full battle gear. Naruto's guards Team Ro were ready to move even though they just arrived in the village. They were exhausted and in a bad condition thanks to battling a group of missing ninja, now the reason seemed much more obvious but they were being deployed simply because the boy trusted them. Kakashi was pissed off beyond measure and the air about him screamed don't fuck with me right now, if you are not somebody I can't go toe to toe against. Kurenai was watching everyone and was quite intimidated. She was brought here thanks to her talents with genjutsu to help elder Koharu to create an opening to cut off the beast's chakra if the boy released the Kyuubi. She was told about the dangers of fighting a berserk Jinchuriki and how easily they can they slaughter an entire army. Alongside her were her friends Asuma and Gai reassuring her everything is going to be okay. She had never seen Kakashi so pissed off, so much that even the clan heads seemed to be avoiding him. His Anbu squad were showing signs of heavy fatigue yet they all had an air of disgust, anger and worry around them. She could see three figures around Kakashi in a Crow, Cat and Dragon mask whom she deduced to be the Uchiha prodigy, her friend Yugao and some unknown man. The atmosphere was suffocating.

After a while, the Hokage came with his most fierce rival Shimura Danzo and his summon Monkey King Enma. All clad in battle armor with sealing equipments. Danzo stepped forward and every shinobi and kunoichi alike, regardless of their stature assembled in five rows.

"Shinobi of leaf. We are gathered here to protect our village. Some fools of our village had already hurt our Jinchuriki enough and we fear if Mitarashi Anko dies in the process of saving the boy he will unleash the terror known as kyuubi on all of us. Make sure you are ready to die if needed. By no means anyone shall kill the Jinchuriki since he is the last one who can hold the mighty beast at bay. Just restrain the boy if he released the Kyuubi. We will all work in group of three. Group 1 will be Ino-Shika-Chou. Group 2 will be Tsume, Shibi and Hiashi. Group 3 will be Fugaku, Yamada Kurama and Dragon. Group 4 will be Cat, Crow and Inu. Group 5 will consist of Enma-sama, Hokage-sama and myself. Finally the only exception, Group 6 will be Kurenai, Asuma, Gai, Koharu, Homura and act as the support.

No one shall make contact with the boy except for members of Team Ro, Hokage-sama or Enma-sama if he is found and not released the Kyuubi. Now proceed", said Danzo and everybody went inside the forest activating their bloodlines, summoning animals, just doing everything in their power to help Anko and Naruto.

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(30 min later)

Everyone who went inside the forest soon found themselves gathering as they went deeper and deeper into the forest. As they went deeper into the forest they could see kunais and shuriken soaked in fresh blood, corpses laying on the ground, crater, destroyed vegetation, etc. Once they started nearing the tower they saw a patch of land and everything in it dead except for Anko who seemed to be badly injured, missing an arm, abdomen cut open which was being healed by Anko-herself. Hokage went to Anko who gave him a weak smile and said- "Don't be sloppy anymore old man or your life will be filled with troubles more than you can handle. Tell the brat I died a happy woman and do not blame him for anything", and finally dropped dead in her leader arms.

Hiruzen closed her eyes and laid her off properly on the ground. He then ordered everyone to look for Naruto, to which Hiashi informed he was laying down in a pit unconscious with two scrolls right below Anko's body. They took Anko's body for a proper burial and rescued Naruto only to find the Snake summoning contract thought to be lost with Orochimaru leaving the village and a scroll containing information about Anko's personal jutsu with him.


	3. Dangerous Gamble

It had been three months since Anko's death and still Uzumaki Naruto was in coma. Her death had struck him harder than anything and Hiruzen knew it. He always knew Naruto was quite a perceptive child, able to understand others feelings but due to having too much chakra in his chakra system (extremely developed for a normal shinobi but mediocre in comparison to a jinchuriki) made his patience near to zero and hence he could not properly focus on anything.

"What are you going to do about the young Uzumaki, Hiruzen?" asked Danzo.

"To be honest, I'm still not able to decide what to do with him Danzo. He has potential but he doesn't have any drive and lacks patience to convert that potential into real power. We can't make him an emotionless tool due to his guardians, his parents last wish and not to mention political backlash. The civilian council will be pissed off if either of us even tried to take him as a student and we both know his education is going to be sabotaged, due to their blind hatred. So in the best interest of the village it's just best to continue things as they are till Naruto is sexually mature, so that the Uzumaki line may still continue. But all the physical violence will be completely stopped", answered Hiruzen.

"Who is going to be your successor in case you passed on?" asked Danzo.

"It is going to be Jiraya but I can't make it official since we need to first find a successor to his spy network. Since we are talking about the topic of village security if either off us passed on then you should tell me about your successor to ROOT. I know it's still active even after my order of closing it. Also don't even consider pulling strings behind the scenes which will eventually make you the Hokage. We are both old Danzo. We both don't have any kekkai genkai, powerful jutsu or super advanced elemental manipulation to show off power like Ohnoki, Minato, A or Tobirama-sensei. We had always fought with intelligence and our body but with our decaying body and chakra system weakening it will look bad on the village. People will assume that Konoha has no ninjas capable of being a kage after Minato's generation and our image will only drop if once a fierce fighter gone soft with old age and a cripple old man lead the village", said Hiruzen.

"Then what about Itachi or Shisui, both are strong and with proper training can become excellent leaders", said Danzo.

"True. Both definitely have got the potential and announcing one of them as my successor can also ease our strained relationship with the Uchiha but both of them are very young and could easily be manipulated if the manipulator has experience on their side plus their career has just begun. They haven't even made a name for themselves yet", countered Hiruzen.

"What is going to be done about the snake contract?" asked Danzo.

"The contract along with the technique Anko left is going to be Naruto's property till we find out why it was left with him. Still you haven't told me about your successor?" questioned Hiruzen.

"I wanted Inoichi to be my successor but he refused. My other option was going to be Ibiki but he is currently being groomed to be the head of T&I by Inoichi. The best option is Shikaku but he is too lazy, plus our thoughts contradict each other. I'm currently training a very promising candidate, his name is Sai but he has close to zero socializing skills", answered Danzo.

Suddenly an Anbu entered the secured room and said - "Sorry for the intrusion Hokage-sama, Danzo-sama but I'm here to inform you that Uzumaki Naruto has woken up from his coma".

"Rabbit thank you for your hard work. Now Danzo come with me, this will be the moment we'll decide our Jinchuriki's future", said Hiruzen.

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(In the Anbu Hospital)

Naruto was sitting rock still. He didn't cry, he didn't shout, he didn't do anything except for sitting still. Anko's last words to him were still ringing in his head ( Consider these as your birthday present and live your life to its fullest). The result he deduced from her final words were her life was in critical danger or she was dead. Even though he was not showing any emotions he was furious. He was angry with the Hokage, his gaurds, Konoha and its citizens but above all he was angry with himself. If he had hidden himself better Anko would be safe. He knew as ANBU his guards had other duties than to see over him and his jiji had to meet dignitaries to keep the village running. He knew he was weak but with no one to teach him the advanced stuff, he was stuck.

"Well Uzumaki Naruto is quite an enigma isn't he Hiruzen, to be able to fool you with the act of a fool with no patience. He has potential that surpasses even yours not in the traditional sense but if he can control his emotions to this degree without prior emotional conditioning then after Kumo we may be able to get a perfect jinchuriki. So how do we train him?" asked Danzo.

"Just follow me and you will see", said Hiruzen.

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(In Naruto's ward)

"How are you feeling Naruto-kun?" asked Hiruzen.

"How is she jiji?" asked Naruto.

"Mitarashi Anko is dead, Uzumaki", said Danzo.

"I see. So who are you old man?" asked Naruto.

"I'm Shimura Danzo, commander of the ROOT ANBU and one of the 3 elders of the village. But the real question is who is the real you, Uzumaki Naruto?" questioned Danzo.

"The real Uzumaki Naruto you ask. He is a boy who has average intelligence, loves to prank, over forgiving and stubborn in nature, very adept at grasping people's emotions and possess a lot of common sense to know there is some connection with him and Kyuubi which makes civilians and most of the shinobi forces hate me and I'm not a common orphan that is why I have my own apartment and the Hokage cares for me so much", answered Naruto.

Both Hiruzen and Danzo were speechless but both of them were impressed nonetheless. For a boy of 8 years of age answering them in such a mature fashion without being intimidated and not to mention the details of the answer.

"Do you want to abandon the village, Uzumaki Naruto?" asked Hiruzen.

Naruto has never heard his jiji speaking to him in such a commanding tone before but nonetheless he answered - "Yes I want to abandon the village. This may be my birthplace but it is not my home. Everyone except a very few people despise me. There is nothing in this village I hold dear except for the little knowledge I was taught by many and my second sensei who genuinely wanted to be my friend", answered Naruto.

"I understand your point of view but we can't let that happen. You are a very important figure in Konoha my boy. You have a family in this village but they can't help or interact with you till you become a ninja or your life will be in a grave danger. The fourth wanted you to be treated like a hero but instead you are treated like a pariah. We can't help you since the civilian council hates you and we need them because we are still recovering financially from the third ninja war and the kyuubi attack", said Hiruzen.

Danzo was very happy but didn't show it. He wanted to smile by seeing his rival slowly returning to his past self, cunning and shrewd. To see his friend playing with words to get the jinchuriki to their side.

"What do you mean by fourth wanted me to be seen as a hero?" asked Naruto.

"I will answer all of your questions Naruto. Everything to who your parents were to your inheritance, but you will have to promise that you will never betray and stay loyal to Konoha", said Hiruzen.

"I need some time to think jiji and I want my scrolls in my apartment before I reach there", saying that Naruto left.

"Quite a daring move you have made my friend. There is a 50-50 chance he will either become our strongest ally or our worst enemy", said Danzo.

"He will become our ally Danzo. I know he wants to know more about his background and he will need our help to bring back the Uzumaki clan but we need to figure out who his second sensei was. His second sensei will be the key to ensure his loyalty to this village", said Hiruzen.

"My men will start searching for this mystery sensei, the boy speaks of. So need to worry about it", said Danzo.

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Sorry if you don't like Hiruzen's new attitude but I would like to point out that in the manga he was soft yet had a militaristic view of things. He ensured that Naruto be able to trust him yet didn't taught him anything and overlooked his mistreatment. Danzo is going to play a major part in the story and Naruto is going to act very differently to even fit this story, as you could have guessed from these chapters.


	4. The Weird Uchiha

Those who have power are the ones who have their way and don't be a naive fool since the world is grey, this is what Anko taught him before she died protecting him. Power! What is power? What connection does have power have with knowledge, since even a horde of beasts could defeat a powerful man? What is the meaning fool and who is a fool? He had the basic understanding of the words as any kid would but what did it meant in ninja world? His life was already a very hard and complicated survival challenge. His life has made him grow up faster, stronger and more mature than the rest of the kids but he was still considered a powerless fool in the eyes of Anko. He was in deep thought while walking towards his apartment. He was so focused on his thoughts that he didn't even realized he entered his apartment and was laying down in his bed for over 3 hours in a trance like state.

"Uzumaki-san do you want anything to eat or drink", asked Crow.

Naruto after hearing the question came back from his trance like state to the real world and replied - "NO".

"Can I ask you a question Crow-san?" asked Naruto.

"Please go ahead", replied Crow.

"Are you Uchiha Itachi and why are you in my apartment?" asked Naruto.

"We ANBU are forbidden to tell anybody our true identity but yes I'm Uchiha Itachi and for why I'm here, you know why Uzumaki-san", answered Itachi.

"I once heard the old man saying you think like a kage but a little immature. So can you tell me, who is considered powerful and a fool in the ninja world?" asked Naruto.

"In the ninja world a knowledgeable person is considered powerful because without knowledge you are an animal with just brute strength or flashy techniques. Also the topic of a fool is quite a lengthy topic since ninja world is a world of deception. In general the one who can't learn from their or others mistakes are fools. In our world deception and stealth are two of the many basic facts pounded while training. So to not be a fool one must always look underneath the underneath in every situation and find the true meaning behind ones sacrifice", said Itachi.

"Since you are asking questions about ninja lives, should I believe you want to become a Konoha ninja?" asked Itachi.

"I can't be a civilian, this fact I accepted a long time ago so a ninja it is", answered Naruto.

"Then let me tell you something very important Naruto, never betray your village. When you become a ninja you become a mercenary in an mercenary organization. The organization will help you grow strong and always have your back, and in return ask nothing more than your loyalty. Abide by this rule and you will be a respected member but betray the organization and you will be a traitor. Even though if you become very powerful you will be always treated like a traitor no matter what other organization you joined. People you once considered your friends will come after you for your life and you will have to kill them in order to survive", explained Itachi.

"Itachi-san, do you even tell your younger brother the same thing when he begs you to train him and you refuse?" asked Naruto.

"How much do you know about Sasuke?" threatened Itachi.

"Nothing much except he is a whiny kid. I know about every kid who will be entering the academy in the next batch with me. You see I don't want to get into situations I can't handle and from what I was able to gather, I can pick up a fight with just anybody and win except for clan heirs who won't accept defeat without a fight", said Naruto.

"Who do you think has the most potential among your upcoming batch?" asked Itachi.

"I will answer your question is you help me with my chakra control and bushin jutsu since your clan elders interrupted before your mother was going to tell me my problem in performing the jutsu", said Naruto.

"Okay I'll help you. Now will you tell me?" asked Itachi.

"First is Nara Shikamaru, got amazing analytical skills but very lazy. Second is Hyuuga Hinata, amazing chakra control but extremely shy. Third is Aburame Shino, got a mind that can think even under a lot of pressure but antisocial. Fourth is your brother and fourth because he is a whiny kid", said Naruto.

"What about you Uzumaki-san? You said you can win against everyone in your batch yet in your own list you are not there", said Itachi.

"I've got no latent ability or special inheritance Itachi-san. My chakra control is horrible, I crack under pressure, my intelligence is slightly above average and all I have got is high pain tolerance, stamina and stealth. I may even get killed in my first C-ranked mission, if my sensei hates me enough", said Naruto.

Itachi was impressed by Naruto's awareness of his own abilities and limitations but he wanted to laugh. He wanted to laugh very badly. He wanted to say - no latent ability, my ass. Jinchuriki of Kyuubi no Yoko, Uzumaki's life force, one of the world's most dangerous clan's techniques, Hiraishin, Rasengan, an entire country as a heritage and if this was not enough he would also get the Senju fortune if Tsunade passed away without any heir. Most of Konoha didn't knew about the boy's heritage since it was so carefully suppressed by the higher ups but it wasn't so hard to figure it out, if one just tried.

"So you say, you have got major troubles in your chakra control and bushin jutsu. Don't worry, I'll leave a scroll with three chakra control exercises by tomorrow morning. Now to your bushin jutsu, perform your bushin jutsu while I observe", said Itachi while activating Sharingan.

"CLONE JUTSU", shouted Naruto and a clone appeared looking dead and bloated.

Itachi was surprised. Naruto was pushing just too much chakra into the jutsu and to think it was his minimum. The amount of chakra he pushed through was enough to perform a B-Rank jutsu. So it was no wonder the clone jutsu didn't worked for him.

"You push just too much chakra into the jutsu. For clone jutsu to work one must use bare minimum chakra. Take my advice and ask for a Hyuuga to help you, since they can see chakra with their Byakugan far better than the Sharingan. Goodbye Uzumaki-san, it was nice talking to a promising youth like you", said Itachi and went away.

"What a weird guy? First he breaks the protocol and subtlety threatens me to not reveal his cover, then he answers my question and explain me about ninja society. He then again threaten me to tell him everything I know about my future classmates and in return promises to help me. He behaves like I'm his greatest responsibility and enemy. Whatever at least he helped me", thought Naruto and went to sleep.


	5. Help with Chakra Control

The next day after Naruto and Itachi's discussion a scroll, Naruto found a scroll in his living room over the table. According to their agreement, Itachi provided with techniques to help with chakra control. He decided to first go to the Ichiraku for his breakfast and later he would start with chakra control exercises.

(At Ichiraku)

"Oi jiji, one bowl of miso ramen", shouted Naruto.

"Why can't you just say 10 bowls of ramen at once rather than again and again ordering", said Teuchi.

"Where is the fun in that, jiji?" asked Naruto in a sarcastic tone.

"So Naruto are you excited to join the academy?" asked Ayame.

"I don't know Ayame-neesan. I'll probably graduate early since I know most of the stuff they teach at academy", replied Naruto.

"So you're going to be Mr. All Knowing in your class", said Ayame.

"No probably the loner who doesn't go to the classes", replied Naruto.

"You know Naruto, if you keep this up you will make no friends. At least try to smile and be enthusiastic about something other than ramen and pranks for a change. Maybe then children your age will like you better", said Ayame.

"Yes Naruto, don't be a loner. Everybody need friends and trust me in all the years I've been serving ninjas, this is the one of the thing I've learnt about them", said Teuchi while giving Naruto his ramen.

"It doesn't matter old man, everyone hates me with a very few exceptions and I have plenty of friends for your information", said Naruto defiantly.

"Okay, okay. Since your admission is finalized so your today's bill is on the house. Now happy", said Teuchi.

"You are the best, old man. ttebayo", exclaimed Naruto and started eating his treat.

"You can lie to us all you want Naruto but deep down you yourself know, you don't trust anyone but yourself", thought Teuchi with sadness.

After eating his treat he went away to his apartment with a smile but seeing him leave Ayame frowned while clenching her fist in slight anger.

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(At Naruto's Apartment)

Naruto started analyzing the contents of the scroll given by Itachi to him as soon as he came home. It had everything he had expected but also a lot more than what he bargained from.

 _To,_

 _Uzumaki Naruto._

 _First of all, sorry for threatening you yesterday. It's just that I deeply care for my brother and if you can get information about him then any trained personnel also can which can result in his harm. So for his safety I had to do what I did. Since I had apologized let me point out your problem with bushin jutsu in detail. Bushin jutsu is a jutsu that requires one to use minimal amount of chakra and mold it into an illusionary body for distraction. The reason only bushin, henge and kawarami is taught in academy is because we want to train children to thoroughly incorporate taijutsu, stealth and teamwork into young ninja before moving onto flashy techniques but back to the topic. You have enormous amount of chakra for kid while most of the chunin and some jonin doesn't have your kind of chakra capacity. But those who have your chakra capacity once had average chakra capacity as kids so during time they built up both capacity and control but you didn't had that option thus your control became abysmal. I can't help you into mastering bushin but a hyuuga can if you are able to convince one._

 _Some exercises to increase your chakra control are listed below:_

 _ **Leaf Exercise:**_ _Take a leaf and try to maintain it on your forehead only using chakra. Once mastered try sticking many leaves or objects to your body and if possible go for each objects weighing differently._

 _ **Tree Climbing:**_ _Gather chakra to the bottom of your feet and stick your feet to the trunk of the tree. Too much and you will be blown off, too less and your feet will not stick. Once you get the chakra right try to climb the tree without using your hand._

 _ **Water walking:**_ _Same as tree walking but you have to walk on water._

 _Since you have large reserves and no control because of which you will be the most vulnerable to genjutsu. So my last advice to you is learn to break free from genjutsu since our unit can't protect you anymore because the Hokage is being forced by the council to do so. Also never limit yourself if you mastered anything then try to improve that skill furthur._

 _Uchiha Itachi._

The scroll given to him by Itachi was part of their bargain but through the scroll he was also given a warning and a message. The warning was to be extra careful because he had no protection and the message was that no matter if you trust the Hokage or not, he cares for your well fare.

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(At Anbu Headquaters)

"Mission accomplished, Hokage-sama, Danzo-sama", said Itachi.

"Good job. Now leave!" ordered Hiruzen and Itachi left.

"So what do we do now Hiruzen? Even though we are slowly nudging towards our side but his growth as a jinchuriki is very small. His chakra suppression is extremely good but that's it. No taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu and the kid does not have the will to kill", said Danzo.

"Don't be hasty Danzo. We know he doesn't trust us or anybody in this village. He is like Anko in a sense but she had seen and experienced the true world of ninja under Orochimaru. The acceptance of her friends and our support made her trust this village again but Naruto was treated worse than her, never had any mentor or friends, always found a way to survive on his own and those are the problems. He loves no one thus nothing binds him to the village and since he always survived on his own, he doesn't want our help. He is still an 8 year old child thus malleable. We already agreed to train him like our ancestors were trained during the warring clan era. He is already showing signs of a ninja of those times: Stealth, self-analyzing and awareness of the surroundings. All he needs is proper taijutsu, genjutsu detection and breaking, some ninjutsu and weapon proficiency. For taijutsu and weapon training he will fight your Root agents who will be beating him up regularly disguised as civilians. Genjutsu and Ninjutsu could be taught to him once he becomes a genin but we need to somehow teach him the basics of some kind of taijutsu as a start", said Hiruzen.

"Don't worry about that. I will teach the boy our ANBU style in a way that he won't even notice it and for the weapon he will have knives", said Danzo.


	6. Implanting Taijutsu

(At Root Headquarters)

"So Danzo what do you want with us?" asked Fugaku.

"I need both of your help to train our Jinchuriki", said Danzo.

"Don't even think we'll go behind Hokage-sama's back just so you could train the kid to be your personal puppet for power. Hokage-sama has already announced in the council that nobody shall interfere with his life", said Inoichi.

"You are correct but that is just a cover to fool the civilian council", said Hiruzen.

"Hokage-sama! What do you mean by a cover?" asked Inoichi.

"We all know the civilian council and the academy instructors will try to sabotage his education if we rely on them. For a war weapon and our true hero his potential can't be overlooked and I won't let such a talent to go to waste", said Danzo.

"What do you mean by talent go to waste? That kid is a prankster and he doesn't have the potential to be a ninja", said Fugaku.

"I have to agree Danzo. The kid does not have the potential to become a ninja. All he does is create nuisance with his pranks. If we still want him as a ninja then train him as one of your Root Agent", said Inoichi.

"We would have done that but it cannot be done or his guardians will flatten the village to nothingness or abandon the village and that we cannot afford. Also don't underestimate the kid. He in every sense is a true ninja but let me tell you what he told us he knew about himself. He told us he knew he isn't a common orphan and the reason everybody hates him is because he has some kind of connection to Kyuubi. He doesn't have much information on the bijuu since it is banned after Kyuui attack but he is very close to the answer to his own question. Don't ever question his potential he for the past year has been infiltrating clan houses and shinobi facilities just to prank. Just think instead of placing paint bombs he places exploding tags at strategic places, he could have done what other villages have been trying to do for years. Kill all of the clans in Konoha", said Danzo.

They both were not even able to utter a single word. To imagine a kid could have weakened the whole Konoha, if he just turned his pranks into sabotage. But every jinchuriki have a large amount of chakra, so much that even a ninja who doesn't possess sensory ability can sense the chakra seeping out of their body. The reason why Jinchuriki were war weapons a mass destruction was because they wielded very destructive abilities but try to use them as assassins would be like trying to hide a lighthouse in dark.

"You mean to say that boy can suppress his chakra to the amount of a civilian without any chakra leaks even after being a jinchuriki", asked Fugaku in astonishment.

"Yes but that is not all but that is not for you to know currently", said Danzo.

"If we are going to help you train him then we would appreciate to not be kept in darkness", said Fugaku.

"Yes Hokage-sama. I would also like to know about his past", said Inoichi in agreement with Fugaku.

"If I tell you both there will be conditions applied. Do you agree?" questioned Hiruzen.

"Hai Hokage-sama!" said both clan heads.

"Then place a blood binding seal on yourself with the conditions that you will keep all the information that would be told to you about Naruto and never reveal them to anyone through any means. Also none of your clan members will treat him any differently than they treat him now nor you will force them", ordered Hiruzen.

"I Yamanaka Inoichi/ Fugaku Uchiha, clan head of Yamanaka/ Uchiha clan will not reveal or pass any information with regard to Uzumaki Naruto been told to us right now through any means and none of our clan members including our self will treat him any differently than we do now nor force them to treat him any differently", said Inoichi/ Fugaku. After speaking they bit their thumb to draw blood. With their blood they made a cross mark over their chest then going through some hand signs finished their blood binding seal.

"Listen carefully because I'm going to speak about this only once. Uzumaki Naruto is the offspring of Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato. He has 4 legal guardians: myself, Hatake Kakashi, Jiraya and Senju Tsunade. He is the heir to the Uzumaki Clan and it's fortune. He will also receive Senju Clan fortune if Tsunade passed away without any heir since he is the only living relative of Tsunade. He will receive all the techniques, summons and fortune of Kakashi, Jiraya and Minato if they die without a heir", said Hiruzen.

Both of their minds were blown away. The jinchuriki that was being treated so badly actually had the power to make Konoha flip upside down. But what was even more troubling that none of them had noticed him before after all he was the exact copy of Minato but behaved like Kushina, just because of the whiskers on his face distracted all their attention. Inoichi was feeling extreme guilt for even though he was an expert on how mind works, he followed the crowd like a fool and didn't properly helped the boy who was their hero. On the other hand, Fugaku was angry on himself. Even with his sharingan he wasn't able to see what was in front of him. He along with his clan elders drove the boy far away from his clan when his own wife was even unintentionally bringing power to his clan. He was internally fuming thinking about how his clan could gain so many things: Toad/Snake/Dog contract, improved hiraishin, Senju/Uzumaki fortune and every jutsu his guardians know through the boy if he just played his cards correctly. But everything was lost because of his own foolishness.

"So who all knows about him?" asked Inoichi.

"Hiruzen, Homura, Koharu, Jiraya, Tsunade, Kakashi, myself and Shikaku", said Danzo.

"How will we train the boy?" asked Fugaku.

"You will implant basic ANBU taijustu style in his subconscious through via sharingan and Inoichi after possessing him will practice all the taijutsu stances thoroughly till it gets implanted into his muscle memory", said Danzo.

"When do we start?" asked Fugaku.

"Tomorrow. Fugaku you will implant the taijutsu style as soon as he wakes up and with that your job is done. Inoichi after that you will every night possess him before his sleep and train his body then leave. Now dismissed", said Hiruzen.


	7. First Impressions

(At the Academy)

All the kids were being sent off to their first day at the academy by their parents with exceptions to Hyuuga Hinata and Uchiha Sasuke who were escorted by their clan members. Every parent were telling their children to pay attention to what their will be teaching them but all their words were in vain since most of the children were dreaming of what kind of heroes they will be becoming except Nara Shikamaru who was thinking how troublesome it all was, then entered Uzumaki Naruto surrounded by an Anbu unit. He wearing an burnt orange colored T-shirt with an attached face mask (kind of like what Kakashi wears), black Anbu pants, black shinobi sandals, an unzipped beige jacket with a hoodie covering his blonde hair which was hidden by a bandana while sporting green goggles hanging from his neck.

Upon his entry every adult looked like they were trying to bore holes into him but upon feeling a little KI emitted by his guards turned away and started warning their children to stay away from him with reasons ranging from he was a delinquent to he was so unstable that Anbu had to watch over him 24/7. The sudden change in atmosphere was all it took to intrigue the attention of kids such as Shikamaru, Hinata, Ino, Sakura and Sasuke. Shikamaru was trying to think of all the possibility why was the mysterious kid had become the target of adults hateful gaze, Hinata was trying to determine was he the one that saved her from those bullies once since he also had cerulean eyes and the adults saw him with hate, Ino was just simply intrigued, Sakura was intimidated by him. Sasuke wanted to find about the mysterious kid who needed the protection of an entire Anbu squad. What made it even more intriguing was that his brother was one of his guards and according to what his father told him about his brother's squad was that it was the strongest squad Konoha Anbu had to offer. He was wondering why a kid had to be escorted to the academy by the strongest Anbu unit available in Konoha.

After the parents went away all the new kids to the academy were gathered in a hall by the academy instructors, lined up waiting for the Hokage speech. After a while, Hiruzen came to give the ninja academy introductory speech. He stepped onto the stage, went toward the podium, upon reaching the podium he grabbed the mike and started - _**"Good Morning, young ones. My name is Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandime Hokage of Konohagakure no sato. Today is a great day for Konoha for so many of you kids will be starting at the academy to become the spear and shield of Konoha. In ninja world we live by the rule: survival of the fittest. Even though there are so many of you right now, we will cut down your numbers drastically during your time in the academy till only the prepared youth may remain. We only want the best because many unprepared genins die on their first C-Rank mission and we don't want more blood on our hands since we didn't prepared them properly. So always give your 100% during your time in the academy or you will be dropped out. Always remember there is always room for improvement so as long as you don't limit yourself you will become great",**_ with that Sarutobi ended his speech and all the children cheered after Hokage's speech.

(In a large room)

"My name is Shiba Tatsuya and you will call me Shiba-sensei till the time I teach you. This will be your classroom for this year. This year all you will learn is Shinobi History, Chakra Theory, Basic Taijutsu, Unlock your Chakra and all the topics civilians learn. Give it your all and remember give it your all or get out and don't waste our time. Now start introducing yourselves", said the oldest academy instructor named Shiba Tatsuya. He was 73 years of age, dressed up in dark blue training Gi with a black sleeveless overcoat and all the scars and a missing hand was the proof of his ninja career.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. My dream is to one day surpass my elder brother and be a great ninja", spoke Sasuke after getting up first.

"

"

"

"My name is Haruno Sakura. My dream is to one day become an excellent ninja and become a strong person", said Sakura.

"

"

"

"My name is Nara Shikamaru. My dream is to become a jonin, marry a woman not too beautiful nor too ugly, have two children a boy and a girl and retire after my daughter is married and son found a stable job", said Shikamaru.

"Each and everyone have such high dreams shame most of them will not make a ninja. Most of them will go to the reserve corps and the only people who will even make to Jonin will be mostly clan kids, Haruno and the Jinchuriki. Thinking of the jinchuriki, he still hasn't introduced himself", thought Tatsuya. "You masked kid introduce yourself", ordered Tatsuya.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. My dream is none of your concern and I'm 11 years old orphan", said Naruto.

"Okay since now everybody knows each other let's start with today's first lesson: Chakra...

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After the classes were over every kid was talking about how weird was Uzumaki Naruto was. How he was such an anti-social person and how their didn't bother even bother with him when he left in the middle of the class. He was an enigma to everyone but one thing they all learned was their sensei didn't give a damn if they want to learn or not.

"I still can't understand how the ninjas can be so blind let alone civilians. He has more potential than Itachi, Kakashi even Minato. Don't you agree Danzo", said Tatsuya.

"So you knew, huh?" asked Danzo.

"Of course, I knew. I didn't survive 3 great ninja wars and appointed as the ANBU commander for nothing", replied Tatsuya.

"Will you teach him something then?" asked Danzo.

"It will be like it always had been Danzo. If the kids wants to improve they have to learn everything on their own, in their free time or ask for help from experienced people. Because the academy basically teaches them nothing but theory, facts and patience. It is how Tobirama-sama and Madara-sama designed it to separate naturally talented youth in ninja ways from those who have to be babied along the way. Let me ask you something - why are you so worried, Danzo?" asked Tatsuya.

"War is coming, old friend. It will take time to come but there is something Hiruzen, Jiraya and I both agree on is that an emerging organization named Akatsuki will be the centre of it", said Danzo.

"How are you so sure?" asked Tatsuya.

"Akatsuki's leader recently eliminated Hanzo in a one-sided fight. They are currently recruiting members and I have confirmed 3 of them. Sasori of the red sands, Kakuzu of Takigakure and Hidan the Immortal. If their leader can recruit 3 S-class ninjas and make them work together efficiently then their goal will create a huge chaos among the ninja world", said Danzo.

"That may be true but it's your and Hiruzen's burden to deal with since I only have 2 years to live due to my medical condition", said Tatsuya.

"Well death is inevitable. If only Orochimaru could have accept that but please try to help us in any way possible if you will", said Danzo and with that he went away.


	8. Sakura Turns into a Fan girl

It had been 2 years since Naruto joined the academy and since then civilians and his classmates had been making different views about him. To the civilians he was Kyuubi reincarnated beating down clan heirs and children mercilessly, thus showing his true nature. To this peers he was a weird person who according to them had multiple personality disorder. In the class he acted worse than Shikamaru to the point he slept through the whole class from starting to end, not even waking up for roll call or lunch except for taijutsu and weapon practice. When he ate, he ate only ramen and so much that he and Chouji always ended up in an eating contest. Naruto always lost by a small margin to Chouji but even after losing he showed a genuine small smile and proclaim he will win next time. Kiba was his class bunking and pranking partner, both always made fun of each other calling names and such but when they pranked someone Naruto always showed the signs of a hyperactive boy with an ear to ear grin and a boisterous laugh. Then there was Sasuke. Since after Itachi massacred his clan except him, he trained relentlessly honing his skill always trying to excel in every field but never once he won in taijutsu against the blonde. Since Naruto was 2 years older than his peers naturally he was taller and well-built than them but all this meant nothing to Sasuke, so in the hope of embarrassing the blonde he called him a dobe who can't even perform a single bushin and in return got seriously pranked. But whenever Naruto fought he looked sharp, always trying to find holes in his opponents defence, thought outside the box to win and this was something Sasuke envied because he didn't had these abilities nor tried to develop and his logic behind it was once he developed his sharingan it will automatically come to him.

Over all they thought of Naruto as a weirdo. To Naruto they were just his acquaintances. Naruto for the last two years had been thinking about what Itachi said on ninja and hidden villages and was confused. From what he learnt from history was every ninja village was deceptive. Kiri was bloodthirsty, Iwa loved war, Kumo used dirty tactics, Suna was lacking proper education and resources. Out of all five great villages Konoha was hailed the greatest and fair in comparison to others but he didn't have any love for the village. After all the hours of thinking, the best course of action he could thought of was become a leaf ninja serve it and retire once you have a peaceful family life.

(At the Academy)

"Hey Sakura, what do you think about Naruto?" asked Ino.

"He is kind of scary Ino and the way he looks at anyone intimidates me", said Sakura.

"So what do you think he looks like under his cover?" asked Ino.

"I don't care Ino", said Sakura.

"Oh so you are going for Sasuke too. You know if you act like this all timid then he may never even notice you since so many girls are after him", said Ino.

"Don't tell me that Ino. Hinata can't even properly speak and he notices her", Sakura replied.

"Sakura, Hinata is a clan heir like me. All the clan heirs know each other from the play dates we were obligated to attend to. Also Hinata is a Hyuuga, the Hyuuga and Uchiha have shared a long rivalry since the creation of the village so of course he notices her. But don't worry Sakura, from what I know Hinata is still searching for the golden haired boy with blue eyes who once saved her from the bullies and in return she helped him unlock his chakra", said Ino.

"You really think if I try harder Sasuke-kun will notice me?" asked Sakura.

"Of course, you are not so bad looking but I'm still more beautiful compared to you", said Ino.

"Hinata-san can I ask you for a favour?" asked Naruto and with that all the eyes in the class turned towards them. Seeing everyone was focused on them Hinata became extremely nervous.

"Ano Na..Naruto-san, wh..what can I do f..for you?" asked Hinata.

"Can you help me with bushin jutsu? As you must know I'm horrible with that jutsu and someone pointed it out to me that I was using too much chakra. Since you possess the Byakugan, will you help me with my problem? I know as a heiress you must have a lot of duties and very less free time, so if you want to help, you can call me anytime when you are free and I will be there", said Naruto with a bowing his head down to Hinata.

"So dobe, you are so useless that you are asking for help to perform a bushin jutsu", mocked Sasuke.

"Don't poke your nose into others matter, Uchiha. Since you think asking for help makes one miserable then why don't you leave the academy and become a strong ninja on your own without even the help of anyone. Can you do that, Uchiha?" replied Naruto in a cold tone.

"The Uchiha got roasted", shouted Kiba from his seat and the class started laughing much to Sasuke's embarrassment.

Sakura witnessing everyone laughing at Sasuke got angry. In anger she got up from her seat went to Naruto and punched him on his face making him fall on his butt. She then shouted – "How dare you insult Sasuke-kun? He is a million time better ninja than you will ever be. If you can't even perform a simple bushin on your own then you should not even think of becoming a ninja".

The words she said in pure anger acted like a medicine to Sasuke's wounded pride and he smiled. Seeing his smile Sakura got satisfied with her actions but now also the other girls who liked Sasuke started insulting Naruto in the hopes of getting closer to him. Seeing everybody insulting him because of Sakura infuriated Naruto. As he stood up, he closed his hands to form a fist ready to punch back Sakura for she hit him with no reason at all but he was restrained by Shikamaru.

" **Shadow Possession Complete** ", said Shikamaru. With that Naruto saw Sakura going back to her seat with her head held high with a smile in pure anger while he could do nothing.

Taking a moment to calm down, he turned towards Hinata and said – "Sorry for that. I hope you don't mind it and can you please give your answer to me tomorrow. If you say no, I won't hold it against you but right now I don't think I can handle rejection". With that Naruto walked outside the academy.


	9. Ino's Guilt

" _ **Shadow Possession Complete**_ _", said Shikamaru. With that Naruto saw Sakura going back to her seat with her head held high with a smile in pure anger while he could do nothing._

 _Taking a moment to calm down, he turned towards Hinata and said – "Sorry for that. I hope you don't mind it and can you please give your answer to me tomorrow. If you say no, I won't hold it against you but right now I don't think I can handle rejection". With that Naruto walked outside the academy._

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"You didn't do good Sakura, insulting Naruto like that. If not for Shikamaru he would have beaten you to a pulp", said Ino.

"Why are you taking his side Ino? I just pointed out the obvious and besides do you believe it Sasuke-kun smiled at me", said Sakura in joy.

"You don't get it do you, Sakura? Naruto was just asking for help from Hinata to become a better ninja. Sasuke insulted Naruto since he asked for help and when he proved his point to Sasuke, he wounded Sasuke's pride. You insulting Naruto made Sasuke feel better, that is why he smiled at you. Apologise to Naruto, Sakura. He from what I heard from my father already leads a very tough life, don't make his life worse", said Ino.

"He is the one who is always picking up fights with Sasuke. Always taunting him, insulting him and beating him. My mother was right he really is a demon and should be treated like one", said Sakura.

"Don't talk about him like that Sakura. We can be friends once again once you apologize to him and if our friendship meant anything to you then you will apologize to him but till then goodbye", said Ino and went away.

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(At the Hokage Monument)

Naruto was sitting up Yondime's head trying to calm down when he heard someone coming towards him. He then spoke –"Why have you come here now, Shikamaru?"

"To see how you are doing you, troublesome blonde. Really I tell you blondes are the most people you can be friends to and I have two", said Shikamaru.

"We aren't friends Shikamaru. We are just classmates who know each other, sleep during lessons because I know everything they teach in academy and you are a genius but not friends. Definitely not after what you did to me back now", said Naruto.

"You may not consider me as your friend but I consider you one, and as such I was looking for your back. You think only you have done background check about your classmates. I know your life has not been easy, civilian council tries to make your life worse and worse from what my father tells me, you and the Hokage have a very close relationship and most things regarding you is S-class or SS-class secret. You know Sakura's mom is on civilian council and that too one of the prominent members. What will happen is you harm her daughter? Simple she will make your life even tougher than it already is. You may not consider me or anyone as your friend but try Naruto. Your quality of life could be better if future clan heads will be your friends. I, Chouji, Ino, Kiba, Shino, Hinata and maybe even Sasuke could make your life better and all we ask for is your friendship", said Shikamaru.

"And what do you want in return? My loyalty, for me to act on you orders. Thanks for your offer but no thanks", said Naruto.

"Then take this. This scroll contains our clan's shadow manipulation secrets. You can learn and use the Shadow manipulation if you want and in return become my friend. If I ever betray you can sell to the highest bidder and since so many villages are after Konoha's clan secrets you will receive a hefty sum", said Shikamaru after tossing the scroll to Naruto.

"You are serious, aren't you?" asked Naruto.

"Yes you troublesome blonde. From what I can understand you are somehow related to Kyuubi and for that everyone hates you but most of the clan heads supports you", said Shikamaru.

"Yes I know that already. Hey can I ask you something Shikamaru?" asked Naruto.

"Shoot", replied Shikamaru.

"What is it like to have a family?" asked Naruto.

"It is very troublesome but also kind of nice. They care and love you unconditionally, support you, encourage you, correct you and show you a path for brighter future", answered Shikamaru.

"You know I had survived 3 years in the streets on garbage and leftovers after I was kicked out of the orphanage at 5. My life since then had been literally a survival challenge but then one day my Anbu guards were out on a mission and I was hurt badly by people and one person died trying saving me. When I woke up in the hospital, Hokage-jiji and I had a long talk. He told me that he knew who my parents were, he told me I have a living family who wants to take care of me but can't due to circumstances. He told me he will tell me everything but I have to pledge my loyalty to Konoha. The only problem is I have no love for Konoha" said Naruto.

"I can't give you the answer to your question Naruto. It is something you must find it on your own", said Shikamaru and went away.

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(The Next Day)

"So what have you decided Hinata-san?" asked Naruto.

"I di…discussed everything with my fa….father and he t..told me not to hel…help you. But I'll hel…help you, under one con….condi…condition", said Hinata.

"What is the condition Hinata-san?" asked Naruto.

"First he..help me con…control my stu…stuttering", said Hinata.


	10. Just required a little trick

It had been a complete year since Naruto and Hinata made their deal. It took a very long time to cure her shyness and build her self-confidence a little because it was deeply embedded into her mindset that she was weak by her clan. What pissed Naruto was that they thought she was so useless that she doesn't needed training but according to common sense more training should be given to those who are considered weak. He told her to become friends with Ino and expand her friend circle. Since she had got mostly free time, he forced her to hang out with her new friends and talk more rather than just listening but it was just a start. From there he made her speak more in the classroom and public. For the final step to make her stop stuttering, he made her raise her voice in defence for him against Sasuke's fan girls but it wasn't as easy as one may presume. The fan girls just kept giving reasons why Naruto was useless and a failure without any facts to support their claim except for he couldn't even produce a single bushin. For Hinata it was the ultimate challenge, she had to stand up for Naruto who was hated by all and defending him was quite a challenge. She didn't wanted anyone to think he was blackmailing her to stand up for him or she was madly in love with him but if she remained quite when somebody was accusing her, they would immediately consider her guilty and would make Naruto's life even worse. So she spoke. At first she raised her voice in an unsure tone and the people ignored her but as time passed her tone started becoming sure of her own self and commanding. All the lectures she received in her clan about how to play with words to prove your point and manipulate them with words started coming in handy.

By the end of the year she was able to speak in a manner that one could mistake her for a council member but even though her confidence level was quite low. Sure she could now speak but in front of her clan she was still considered weak because she couldn't use Jyuuken. Naruto tried to reason with her that if she couldn't use Jyuuken then try other fields she was good at but she refused. In the end he fulfilled his part of the deal now it was Hinata's turn to fulfil her part of the deal. Hiruzen and Danzo were quite pleased with Naruto's progress. For them Naruto had slowly started to make emotional attachments to the village and in return the future clan heads supported Naruto, not in the conventional way but still supported him.

In the past Naruto became quite close with Shiba Tatsuya, the academy instructor since he was intrigued by him. Shiba even though handicapped had an air about him that screamed I'm dangerous and not to be messed with. Naruto in his whole time in the academy paid attention only to his theory classes even though he knew everything. He talked with the old man whenever he was free for advice on life, his ninja career, etc and the old man always gave answers to Naruto's questions. During the last two months of his life he taught Naruto the basics of earth manipulation when Naruto asked him to help him find his affinity and help him master it. When Naruto asked why? The reason he gave was, he didn't care. He told him one must know how to defend properly before attacking and earth was the most defensive element of the five. No matter how much Naruto didn't wanted to cry, the death of Shiba Tatsuya made him a crying mess.

(With Naruto and Hinata)

Naruto and Hinata were standing in an abandoned personal training field owned by the Nara clan. Since it was owned by the clan nobody except for the clan members could enter it but since it was too far away from their compound, nobody used the training field from the clan of lazy geniuses. So Shikamaru lent the training field to Naruto and no one from his clan ever raised any objections. The training field was not excessively large. It was a circular clearing 50m in diameter between the forest with a small stream running from the between. Naruto customized the field by making a circular canal around the clearing for the water to flow and closed the original pathway. Now he had a small circular training field surrounded by flowing water. It was a place he could train mentally, physically and basics of all chakra natures. It became his personal training ground.

"Hinata, I had done my part of the deal so shall we start my training?" asked Naruto.

"We can start when you want Naruto-kun", replied Hinata.

"Please activate your byakugan Hinata and watch me closely then", said Naruto and performed the bushin jutsu.

Hinata was amazed by the amount of chakra Naruto put into the jutsu. Sure she knew he put too much chakra in the jutsu but this was tremendous. He roughly put the same amount of chakra Sakura possessed or even more but didn't looked drained.

"Naruto-kun, just how much chakra do you use while performing the jutsu?" asked Hinata.

"I put the least amount of chakra I can mould Hinata, since our teacher did told us to use the least amount of chakra one can gather", replied Naruto.

Now Hinata was simply impressed. To Naruto, he simply moulded the least amount of chakra he could muster. Hinata knew Naruto could perform higher level chakra control exercises because he had higher reserves than most people but if this was the least amount of chakra he could muster than how much chakra did he possessed. With the amount of chakra he used, any seasoned Jonin could use a B-Rank ninjutsu.

"Naruto-kun just how many clones can you make at once?" asked Hinata.

"Why do you ask this, Hinata?" questioned Naruto in response.

"I asked that because the amount of chakra you use for bushin is just too much. The least amount of chakra you can muster is roughly the whole amount of chakra Sakura-san possesses and any seasoned Jonin can use a B-Rank jutsu in that amount of chakra. So if you make many clones instead of one with the same amount of chakra, your chakra will be distributed equally among your clones and once you find the ideal number of clones, you can literally have an army of illusions", concluded Hinata.

"Naruto was speechless. He was someone who prided himself for thinking outside the box but he could not figure out how to make bushin jutsu work even with a huge hint left to him by Itachi, especially when the solution to his problem was so easy. He felt like banging his head to something repeatedly for his foolishness but now was not the time for self-pity. So he made a hand sign and shouted **BUSHIN JUTSU** ", Naruto.

A huge puff of cloud covered a small part of the forest and when the cloud disappeared a huge army of illusion was all he and Hinata could see.

"Thank you, thank you Hinata. Because of your help I won't fail the genin exams for the third but you are a mean, Hinata", said Naruto with a lot of happiness and enthusiasm while hugging Hinata making her passing out with a red face.


	11. Temporary Team

(At the council)

"Respected council members, all the kids who passed the academy have been placed into teams. This like every year has been done with the help of academy teachers and their soon to be Jonin-sensei. If you will have objections say them after I tell you about the teams. Team 1 will be led by Aoba and will consist of…., Team 6 will be led by Takashi Momoshiro. Team 7 will consist of UchihaSasuke, Haruno Sakura and UzumakiNaruto with the HatakeKakashi as their sensei. Team 8 will consist of Aburame Shino, HyuugaHinata and InuzukaKiba with YuuhiKurenai as their sensei. Team 10 will consist of Yamanaka Ino, AckimichiChouji and Nara Shikamaru with SarutobiAsuma as their sensei", said Hiruzen.

"Hokage-sama, I object with that monster to be paired with my daughter and Uchiha-sama", said MebukiHaruno (Sakura's mother).

"Never call Uzumaki Naruto, a monster or anything that may point out his relationship to the Kyuubi ever again or I will execute you myself. Also stop interfering with the work of Shinobi council. Do you understand", threatened Hiruzen.

"Hai Hokage-sama", replied Mebuki in anger.

"Though I hate to admit but she does have a point Hokage-sama. Uzumaki doesn't along with both Haruno and Uchiha after their fight in the academy. Teamwork will be difficult among them and you do know Kakashi", said Tsume.

"Then just drop Uzumaki from Kakashi's team and place him into some other team", said a civilian council member.

"As I said stop interfering with Shinobi Council's work you civilians and for Kakashi to drop Uzumaki is not possible. He even agreed to take a team with the condition that Uzumaki must be assigned to him. Those in favour of the decision raise your hand", said Hiruzen.

Everyone except Tsume and some other shinobis on the council raised their hand and with that temporary team 7 was formed.

"Now does anyone have any objection with other teams?" asked Hiruzen but no reply came so the council meeting ended.

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(At the Academy)

"Congratulations! All of you. Everyone sitting in this classroom you had all become a genin. You are now fully fledged ninjas of Konoha and will be considered adults. You all will receive the same treatment as adults. You will be allowed to consume alcohol, gamble, etc but never get too drowned in these habits or they will be your downfall. Be the best ninja you can possibly be and make Konoha proud", lectured Iruka.

"Now this will be your team arrangement: Team 1…..,Team 6 will be led by Takashi Momoshiro. Team 7 will consist of UchihaSasuke, Haruno Sakura and UzumakiNaruto with the HatakeKakashi as their sensei. Team 8 will consist of Aburame Shino, HyuugaHinata and InuzukaKiba with YuuhiKurenai as their sensei. Team 10 will consist of Yamanaka Ino, AckimichiChouji and Nara Shikamaru with SarutobiAsuma as their sensei", said Iruka.

"Take that Ino-pig. I'm placed in Sasuke-kun's team since my love for him was stronger than yours", shouted Sakura.

"You can have him all to yourself Sakura. I was never interested in him in the first place. I have to train hard to become an excellent kunoichi and lead my clan. My advice to you is that break out of your fan girl attitude and train for real or you will die in a mission", said Ino.

"You can say whatever you want Ino, everybody knows I'm the best kunoichi in the class since it was me who got the best kunoichi award at the graduation", replied Sakura.

(Three hours later)

"Where the hell is our sensei? He was supposed to arrive here 3 hours earlier", shouted Sakura.

"Just shut up Sakura. Your shrilling is making my ears hurt", said Naruto.

"For once I agree with you dobe", said Sasuke.

"Sasuke-kun, why are you taking his side instead of mine?" questioned Sakura with her eyes tearing up.

"Oh! So my cute little genins are bonding as a team even before being made into official genins. How adorable. Meet me at the rooftop in 5 minutes", said Kakashi and went away with a puff.

"What did he meant by us not even being made official genins?" asked Sasuke.

"Who knows? But one thing is for sure we won't get it till we talk to him so let's go to the roof top", said Naruto and with that team 7 went to meet Kakashi.

"Oh you all made it in just the nick of time. Hello you all. My name is Hatake Kakashi. My likes and dislikes are none of your concern, and I have many dreams. Now please introduce yourselves. Tell me about your likes, dislikes, dreams and skillset. You pinky start", said Kakashi.

"My name is Haruno Sakura. I like, she then look towards Sasuke. I dislike Ino-pig and Naruto-baka. My dream is to one day have a future, she then again look towards Sasuke. I know the academy 3 and how to dispel genjutsu", said Sakura.

"You Blondie", said Kakashi.

"My name is Uzumak Naruto. I like ramen, my friends, my mentors and pranks. I dislike 3 minutes it takes to make ramen, idiots and secrets kept from me. My dream is to one day find my family and have my own family. I can perform Kawarami and henge without handsigns. I know all three chakra control exercises, earth bushin, earth wall and basic earth manipulation. ", said Naruto.

"You Broody Emo", said Kakashi.

"My name is Uchiha Sause. I don't have many likes or dislikes. My dream is to kill a certain man and restore my clan to greatness. I can perform academy 3, proficient with fire release and use many fire ninjutsu", said Sasuke.

"So I have got a die-hard fan girl with very little skills, a strange Jinchuriki who hates Konoha with serious skills and a broody Avenger with good skills", thought Kakashi.

"So sensei what did you mean by not even official genins?" asked Sasuke.

"Oh! Good question Sasuke. Right now you are just temporary genins and to become official genins you all have to pass the test designed by your Jonin sensei. If you pass we become an official team or else you go to the reserve corps. For your test meet me at training ground 14 tomorrow at 6 am sharp. Also I advise you all to not have a breakfast if you don't want to end up throwing up and bring your bentos for afternoon lunch ", said Kakashi and went away with a sushin.

(At the Jonin lounge)

"So Kakashi, what will you be teaching them", asked Asuma.

"First they have to pass for me to be teaching them", replied Kakashi.

"We all know the council won't let you fail the Uchiha and thus you have to pass the whole team. So what will you will be teaching them?" asked Asuma.

"I will teach them everything and I'll teach them nothing", said Kakashi.

"So you are essentially going to teach them nothing due to your laziness?" asked Kurenai.

"I had trained many people Kurenai and all became powerful ninja. You are still a rookie Jonin Kurenai, so you still don't know everything", said Kakashi.

"Are you mocking me Kakashi?" threatened Kurenai.

"No Kurenai, he is just stating the facts but Kakashi they are not ready to be trained ANBU style especially by you", said Asuma.

"What do you mean train ANBU style?" asked Kurenai.

"ANBU only refines taijutsu and weapon skills of those who join. Other skills they are lacking are just told to them as a suggestion. Those who could not decipher the suggestion are thrown out and those who do decipher it are required to grasp the skill to be usable in battle then the superiors thoroughly beat the skill into the cadet till it is basically a second nature to them. This is the reason ANBU agents do the highest ranking missions. They may not be versatile or too powerful but they know how to use their limited skill to its maximum potential and do everything to complete the mission objective. If Kakashi put his students through it two outcomes are possible. His team may become chunins by the end of this year or he will completely destroy their trust in him", said Asuma.

"Whatever the result may be Asuma, they will go through it. Each of them have potential but if I cannot cultivate it into power then I should just quit as their sensei", said Kakashi.


	12. Team 7

The next day Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura came to training ground 14 at the designated time given to them by Kakashi without having any breakfast as told but their soon to be sensei was late. This made Sasuke angry because to him all the time they waited for could be used for training. Sakura was happy because the more time their sensei took the more time she could spend with Sasuke. Naruto ignoring both of them tried to make a small piece of metal crumble with his chakra to complete the final step of earth manipulation. He was neither happy nor sad with the situation, sure it was bad that his sensei was late and he was stuck with two people his age who hated him the most but since Sasuke was on the team their sensei was sure going to be strong and even if he didn't wanted to teach him a thing he had to teach him by default. As they waited for Kakashi, Naruto started remembering his mentor Shiba Tatsuya.

His mentor Shiba Tatsuya was a man of pure logic. He taught him many things, polished his taijutsu to the point he could give a seasoned chunin a run for their money, he taught him earth release and even told him about the Kyuubi sealed inside him by Yondime Hokage. This nearly broke Naruto making him cry after a long time but when he cried the old man thrashed him like no one ever had. After he healed, the old man for once in all the time he had spent with Naruto explained to him very gently, the difference between a bijuu and a jinchuriki and how the Yondime wanted him to be seen as a hero but when it was announced everything backfired. On his deathbed he told Naruto that if he ever wanted to succeed in life just ignore trash and always think about the consequences of your action. Hiruzen after Shiba's death told Naruto that he ordered Tatsuya to teach him anything he deemed necessary to make Naruto close to a chunin-level ninja. This made Naruto even angrier on Hiruzen for trying to control his life but currently he thanked Hiruzen for giving him such a mentor and even though his soon to be sensei might not teach him a thing but all he had to do was become a chunin and he would be free. He just wished that Kakashi even if he hated him be professional and be a good sensei.

"Hello temporary team 7, sorry for being late but I had to help an elderly reach her home to which she forgot the address to. I hope you will understand", said Kakashi after coming 3 hours late after the designated time.

"First you come 3 hours late and then you give us such a lame reason as to why you were late. If you had already told us to come late then we could at least have a breakfast before coming here", shouted Sakura.

"It is not my problem if you haven't had breakfast. Didn't you ever pay attention to the lessons of diet for a ninja in the academy and here I thought you were a smart one. Let me refresh your memory a little bit, a ninja can be called anytime for action and so they must always have their meals to have enough energy to complete mission assigned. Even if you hadn't had breakfast surely you can handle yourself half-a-day without food. Just look at your teammates, even though they are hungry they can go for at a day before collapsing", said Kakashi.

"But you ordered us not to have breakfast", argued Sakura.

"In addition to being a useless kunoichi, are you deaf too. I advised you all not to eat breakfast. If anyone of you came here after having breakfast even though I ordered, I wouldn't have a single problem with it. Now hear me carefully because I'll not repeat myself. The test I'm going to give you has a 33% of passing. Do you see these two bells?" asked Kakashi.

"Yes sensei!" replied the trio.

"You all have to get a bell before the timer runs out at 12 noon. The one who can't get a bell from me will be dropped off the team and sent to the academy. You can use any wepon, jutsu, just anything at me during the test. Come at me with the intent to kill or you won't even have a chance of passing. Now let's get started", said Kakashi starting the timer.

As soon as Kakashi said let's get started all three dashed to the forests surrounding them in a try to conceal themselves from the lazy jonin. Seeing them all dash towards the forest, Kakashi smiled, took an orange book from his back pouch and started reading it while sitting on a rock at the centre of the clearing in the forest.

If looks could kill then Sakura could have killed Kakashi in an instant. To say Sakura was angry was an understatement. She was furious. First Kakashi came late, then he questioned her that if she even paid any attention at the academy. He called her a useless kunoichi in front of her Sasuke-kun and if it was not enough he then called her deaf too. She was angry, hungry and to pass she had to fight that lazy Jonin for the bells. She was by no means an idiot and from what her mother told her last night her sensei was a man not to be underestimated by his behaviour. He was powerful, one of the best Konoha had to offer and if anything happened to the Hokage, he was one of the few who could take the place but the question was how to get the bells from him when he had shrewdly weakened them even before their fight.

There were only three ways to even pass the test. First was to cut off the competition so only two of them remained and thus Kakashi would be obliged to take the two remaining as his students but then she would have to defeat Naruto in a fight but it was out of the picture since even her Sasuke-kun wasn't able to beat him in a straight fight. Second was to try individually but Kakashi was too skilled even if he decreased his battle prowess to fight them leading to their failure. Third was to try as a team but even if they somehow managed to get the bells from him it would be given to Sasuke and Naruto for their efforts but this efficiently cut her away from her Sasuke-kun, something she refused to be. So she was stuck with no ideas whatsoever.

Sasuke and Naruto were both cursing Kakashi and yet at the same time were mesmerized by him. He had weakened them before their fight with just words and intimidation. He had effectively almost neutralised their arsenal of academy 3 and fire/earth release by merely sitting in the middle of the clearing. He had them cornered and still hadn't raised a single finger against them. If he could do this much without even trying just what could he do is he tried and this thought was what made them mesmerized by him. They started thinking of the possibilities how great a teacher he would be but for him to be their teacher, they had to pass his test and this is what that angered them making them curse him because they had no idea how to get those bells. Taking the initiative Naruto charged at Kakashi full speed engaging him in taijutsu.

Naruto tried to punch Kakashi with his right hand in the gut but he just blocked the punch with his right. He followed up by a kick to Kakashi's rib by his left but Kakashi again blocked him, this time with his left. Using his body's momentum Naruto spun to plant a back heel over Kakashi's face but the jonin grabbed his leg and threw him at a tree. After his collision with the tree, the blond waved through hand signs.

 **Doton: Wrath of the earth god.**

Upon finishing the jutsu many cylinders with spherical head made of rocks emerged from the ground and launched towards Kakashi. Kakashi was shocked to see an unknown jutsu from Naruto. For a man who had copied over a thousand jutsu this was something new and that must meant that this was Naruto's own creation. If he had to classify the jutsu it would be a B-class offensive jutsu and for Naruto to create this level of jutsu at his age without any proper guidance and use it while making it weaker by removing the sharp tips of the cylinders on an ally, he was truly his sensei's son. So he gave Naruto an eye smile and dodged the incoming attack. Kakashi then closed the distance between him and Naruto and then caught him in an illusion saying shinobi skill no 1: genjutsu.

 **Genjutsu: Hell viewing technique.**

With that Kakashi caught Naruto in his genjutsu. Trapped in the genjutsu all Naruto saw was his friends and teachers being tortured by their own family members in various ways for helping him: the demon. Naruto could feel the power in his knees disappearing and so he fell down on his knees while pleading to the crowd to leave them alone, repeatedly.

Sakura saw Naruto in the middle of the clearing alone on his knees pleading in air to leave them alone for some time and then stop altogether. She hypothesized that Naruto was caught in some genjutsu and after some time he realized it but didn't know how to break it. She could have helped him if she wanted but this was her chance, now together with Sasuke she could get the bells and pass the exams. So she left Naruto and went to look for Sasuke but was intercepted by Kakashi.

"Even though you are such a promising Kunoichi, you truly disappoint me Sakura. Shinobi Skill no 2: Taijutsu", said Kakashi engaging her into taijutsu.

After fighting with Kakashi for nearly 15min, Sakura was thoroughly exhausted. All Kakashi did was planting a heavy punch in her gut during the starting of their fight and then dodged all her attacks without attacking. Sakura then fainted due to not having enough energy to continue. From afar Sasuke saw Kakashi fight with both Naruto and Sakura. After seeing him fight one thing was clear to him that he could not beat Kakashi but there was a chance to get a bell. Naruto was better than him and he acknowledged that but only when you wanted a fight till one falls and that was not the case here. He knew he couldn't beat Kakashi but it was not the point of the test, so he devised a battle plan.

Kakashi was reading his book while walking in the forest without any worry in the world. Sasuke seizing the moment threw two shurikens at Kakashi and he caught it without a sign of anxiousness. Sasuke then started running towards to the place he rigged with traps. Kakashi saw Sasuke was running away from him but his body language indicated that he was not worried that he was discovered, he came to the conclusion that Sasuke was luring him to a place rigged with traps since Sasuke knew he was below Naruto in taijutsu and his ninjutsu was not very stealthy. To see what Sasuke had prepared, Kakashi followed him.

After following Sasuke for 5min, he arrived in a small clearing when he heard the noise of cutting of the rope which made him alert. Suddenly a log came down in a circular arc which was intended to knock him down but he substituted himself with a log in a puff of smoke but before he composed himself Sasuke attacked him.

 **Katon: Grand fireball technique.**

A giant fireball was hurled at him by Sasuke, so he dodged it but then Sasuke engaged him in taijutsu. Fighting Sasuke was different than fighting Naruto altogether. Sure both were predictable as one used ANBU style taijutsu and the other classic Uchiha Style but Naruto's attack style was rigid but packed with heavy blows whereas Sasuke's attack style was fluid and could be lethal if used with weapons. Sasuke threw a right punch but Kakashi deflected it with his left. Following his punch Sasuke tried a low leg sweep with his left to misbalance Kakashi but he just jumped to evade it but without missing a beat he balanced himself on his right palm and continued with a back heel to Kakashi's left cheek while at a same time tried to salvage a bell with his left. Seeing the danger Kakashi backed away and said –"Shinobi skil no:3, Ninjutsu", and with that Kakashi's clone dispelled with a puff of smoke alerting Sasuke but it was too late. A hand came out of the ground and grabbed Sasuke's leg.

 **Doton: Head hunter jutsu.**

With that Kakashi captured Sasuke in the ground with most of his body underground except his head.

"You think too highly of yourself Sasuke. I vaguely knew what you were capable of by observing you for a few days while you were training like I did with others. So when you activated your first trap I first substituted myself with a log and then within the smoke I made a clone of myself to fight you and hid myself underground. Now the alarm will run out any minute, so you all failed", said Kakashi and the alarm rung indicating team 7 failed. After the alarm rung, all of them were gathered by Kakashi where he trapped Naruto in the genjutsu.

"You all fail and word of advice: abandon the path of a ninja forever. I don't care how the council will make my life a hell for failing their prince Uchiha who is mightier than any genin and also for making councillor Haruno's daughter fail. What did you thought Sakura that leaving Naruto alone and teaming up with Sasuke will force me to accept you both as my subordinates? Sasuke just forget about avenging your clan because you will never be able to kill Itachi. Why do I think that you may ask? The answer is, it was me who trained him in ANBU and you are not even an eighth a ninja he is. And Naruto, you think you can accomplish everything on your own then you are gravely mistaken. Did you all think you could have taken a jonin head on and somehow win? The objective of the test was teamwork and the rest was done to make you turn against each other. Tell me if you all were in a battle to the death with me as your opponent whom you knew was superior to you all in every manner what would you all have done? Fight me one on one, I don't think so. As a ninja one must be able to see underneath the underneath. Also a ninja who break the rules is trash but those who abandon their comrade are worse than trash. Always remember these two facts. So as of now, we are team 7 because the council wants so. Let's take a picture to commemorate this joyous moment", said Kakashi with an eye smile.

With that Team 7 or Team Kakashi was formed permanently and to make them remember their first failure as their lives as a ninja their team photo was taken. In the photo Kakashi was wearing his usual Jonin attire and his eye smile while keeping his left hand on Sasuke's and right hand on Naruto's shoulder with Sakurain the middle. Sakura who could not handle the humiliation was looking down towards the ground with a gloomy expression. Sasuke was glaring at Kakashi in anger while at the same time loathing himself for his stupidity and failure. Naruto for the first time in 5 years removed his bandana and his mask to reveal his face to anyone. He had an angular face with a circular jaw. He had two bangs of spiky hair reaching his jaw, his long front hair covered his left eye and the rest were tied into a ponytail reaching his mid torso. He now forever removed his bandana, mask, and hood and replaced his goggles was his headband which he now hanged around his neck. All he gave in the photo was an awkward smile while he looked down towards the ground.

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 **Yeah! I know how the team formed must have surprised you all but how Kakashi passed his team in the manga was just idiotic to me. So this time, they were passed but on the orders of the council. This way no one could protest Kakashi's way of teaching and it gives me the chance to redeem myself for making Sakura such a bitch. This time Kakashi will teach them more than just tree climbing because it only makes sense since he is their sensei.**


	13. Team Build Up

Team 7 was passed by Kakashi at the order of the council and the council was happy. Not the whole council but the civilian council but it was a mistake that washed away all their efforts to get a place of the power the Uchiha possessed in Konoha. This was the reason which made both Danzo and Hiruzen delighted with joy. All it took was just few little words from Kakashi to completely crush the senseless pride and ego Sasuke possessed due to civilians council unconditional support and praises. In just a single moment gone was the old Sasuke filled with pride and ego, and what remained was a Sasuke that could be moulded in a way Itachi wanted, supposedly. This made possible to fulfil one of Konoha's greatest hero's last request come true by making the Uchiha clan fully trust Konoha and give his little brother enough power to kill him. Now what remained was to see how Kakashi moulded his team to reach their true potential and if required both Hiruzen and Danzo would just give Kakashi some suggestions to improve his team.

(Training ground 14)

All the members of team 7 were waiting for their sensei to arrive but he was late, again. Naruto just like last time was sitting down with a piece of metal trying to crumble it down by his earth chakra. Sasuke was training his taijutsu along with his shuriken jutsu near the river and Sakura was just watching Sasuke with hearts in her eyes which annoyed Sasuke to no end. Three hours later Kakashi arrivedat the training groundbut this time no one gave him a look or yelled at him. They just politely greeted the man and asked him what he would teach them today.

"Good everyone is training except Sakura, I see. So let's get down to business. I'll not teach you a thing", said Kakashi in a flat tone.

"What do you mean by you will not teach us a thing? You are our sensei and so it is your duty to teach us", said Naruto in an absolute tone.

"I'm your sensei not by choice but by order, Naruto. You all didn't pass my test so I'll teach you how shinobi who gets thrown in the reserve corps are taught. My words will be absolute and you have to follow them without any question. I'll give you all suggestions on how you can improve yourself. If you take the suggestions in a positive way then good for you and if not, you may die on a mission and it will not be my fault. Now from what you all told me about your skillset and the evaluation I did during your genin test, I have come to the conclusion Naruto and Sasuke are close to chunin-level shinobi but Sakura is barely a kunoichi.

So Sakura stop obsessing over Sasuke, dieting to maintain your figure and start training in taijutsu, endurance, and chakra control and chakra capacity. Sasuke you are an all-rounder shinobi skilled in many art of the ninja but you lack good chakra control. So start training yourself in chakra control and help Sakura improve her taijutsu and endurance during your free time. Naruto you are a very good shinobi, you may not be as skilled as Sasuke but you are still very good for a genin. Huge chakra capacity, mastered three chakra control exercises, nearly mastered earth chakra, etc but you have a very big weakness and that is genjutsu. But since you are already such an advanced genin, here is a jutsu for you in this scroll. Not very uncommon among Konoha ninja but it is still a very lethal technique if one used it properly. You will teach both Sasuke and Sakura tree walking and water walking and in return they will teach you how to break out of genjutsu.

Remember a genin to participate in the chunin exams is required to at least complete 10 D-rank missions but the D-rank missions are more chores than a ninja mission. So just go to the Hokage tower, ask for a D-rank mission and complete it as a team without me. I'll meet you three once every week on monday and if I feel you have improved you will get more suggestions and if you really had advanced you may also receive a jutsu or so. Now goodbye", said Kakashi and went away.

"Looks like, we are stuck with each other. Even though we don't like each other we have to work as a team if we want to become good ninjas", said Naruto.

"Though I hate to agree with you dobe, you have a point. But it is not like he is not teaching us a thing and he will teach us but not in the conventional way because of our own stupidity", said Sasuke.

"You know maybe my mother can help with our problem. After all she is a major member in the council", said Sakura.

"She is a member of the civilian council and members of civilian council have no say in the ninja matters except when it concerns the village's economy", said Naruto.

"You know a lot about these matters, dobe", commented Sasuke.

"You will know too if Hokage-jijisama makes you learn Konoha laws by hart as punishment for pranking people. Due to that I know every Konoha law ever made", said Naruto.

"I don't want to be rude but you must suck at pranking if you got caught pranking so many times that you learnt Konoha laws by hart", said Sakura.

"Have you ever heard of Pranking Menace Sakura-san?" asked Naruto.

"Of course I had. I mean which kid hasn't heard of him. The person who was so good at pranking that Anbu had to be deployed to catch him and who could forget his last masterpiece by painting the Hokage Mountain in broad daylight", said Sakura.

"Yeah, that was me. That was the time; I was so obsessed with getting attention that even negative attention was enough for me. So I pranked people, civilian and ninja establishments and even clan compounds but then I got bored with everything so I stopped after doing my masterpiece", said Naruto.

"Still it is hard to believe. I mean you are always so composed Uzumaki-san", said Sakura.

"Just Naruto is fine, Sakura. This goes for you too, Sasuke. And if you call me dobe one more time then I will show you why I was called the king of pranks", threatened Naruto.

"So what will be our future plans?" asked Sasuke.

"We have no choice but to help each other to cover our own individual weaknesses. So we have to come with sort of time-table to help each other", answered Naruto.

"It's all good but even though we help each other, we are still just newbie's and we will require help from experienced ninja's. If Kakashi could wipe the floor with us without breaking a sweat then we need to train seriously especially you Sakura", said Sasuke with a special emphasis on Sakura.

"Okay then, I've a plan. Every day we start with me training you both in chakra control exercises for at least two hours, starting from 5:30 a.m. Then we will proceed to taijutsu training in which two of us will team up and beat the shit out of the third one and every day the pairing will changed so that once in a week we at least get double teamed up twice a week. Then from 11 a.m. we can do a couple of D-rank missions. After our missions we can have team meeting, physical training and exchange ideas", proposed Naruto.

"Sounds good, do..Naruto-san. Your training regime do have benefits but don't you think it will be too hard on Sakura", said Sasuke.

Hearing him Sakura couldn't help herself but be delighted in joy. The love of her life, Konoha's prince, her dark prince behind his mask of apathy actually cared for her even though a little but still it was a start. After revelling in the moment Naruto's words hit her like a wrecking ball and she realised what kind of hellish training he was actually proposing. Sure she may have not fought Sasuke back the academy, usually forfeiting before it even began but she could not forget her matches with Naruto. He never held back, his style was something akin to precision brawling and he used to hit hard and fast. When in a fight he fought so ruthlessly that he didn't even bother showing mercy to the shy and timid Hinata. To top it, if Sasuke joined him it would become torture since even Sasuke didn't held back during a match. And if this was not enough to make her go through their normal training regime would most likely physically break her.

"Naruto, I do believe your training regime will help us greatly in strengthening us but don't you think it is currently out of my reach. So can you please tone it down for me", said Sakura in a low voice.

"Sure, sure. It was just that, you always proclaimed so hard that you would do anything for Sasuke in the academy that I thought you would want to become stronger in pace with us, after all people will be targeting Sasuke to turn him into a breeding machine since he is one of the last two Uchiha. Since we will be going outside the Konoha for missions, there is a lot of chances of that happening. So for you forget the chakra control and focus all that time building stamina and endurance, so you can start by running laps around Konoha", and with Naruto's words Sakura's Shoulders slumped down in defeat but a fire was burned inside of her heart.

"So Naruto-san, who taught you all these things?" asked Sakura.

"Well there were many but the most notable ones were Hokage-jijisama, Shiba-sensei, street fights, ANBU and Sasuke's aniki but in each case I had done something which impressed them somehow", replied Naruto.

"You are saying you were taught by ANBU, Itachi and Hokage-sama. How come they even taught you?" asked Sasuke.

"Well there were many but yes, they were the 3 of my 5 significant teachers. You see when I was young, I was not liked by many and what was even most frustrating that they didn't even acknowledged my existence. So to get acknowledgement, even negative ones I retorted to pranks but when you prank many people who already don't like you, they retaliate. So they searched me and beat me down and in order to escape and defend myself from them I learned how to fight and hide. Eventually the skills I developed were not enough to keep myself safe from my ever-growing fans, so the Hokage-jijisama assigned me ANBU gaurds and Itachi was one of them. They saw me and for some reason they saw potential which even I don't see in myself and taught me taijutsu and its importance. Soon within in a matter of months my unique way of fight developed, it consisted of ANBU's submission style taijutsu and street fighting. Out of my guards Itachi was odd, he told me about something and then threatened me not to reveal anything. We had a weird kind of relationship but he was the one who taught me Chakra Control exercises and told me that genjutsu would be my biggest weakness. So yes Sasuke, your brother taught me and that's it. But what always baffled me was that he always told me how he loved this village and his family but he betrayed both", said Naruto.

"Naruto both you and Sasuke-kun know advanced taijutsu styles, so could you please teach me the ANBU style you learned", asked Sakura.

"I can teach you Sakura but it may not suit you. One should learn a taijutsu style complementing their skillset. We are probably a heavy assault unit with Sasuke as a close to mid range nin-tai expert due to his potential Sharingan, myself as close to long range ninjutsu expert with my abnormally high chakra reserves and that leaves you to be either a genjutsu or a combat medic for support because of your chakra control. Our team in a sense is like that of the Sannins. With me as the excessive firepower, Sasuke as the precise firepower and you Sakura as the support. So as the genjutsu or medical expert, your fighting style should be a blend of more evasion and less but precise strikes and the submision style is totally attack and break your opponent but not kill them", replied Naruto.

"We should start from tomorrow 5:30 a.m. sharp. Goodbye", said Sasuke and went away. And after a while both Naruto and Sakura left too.

"Quite a team you have made them into, Kakashi. From stupid arrogant genins to what I say decent genins", said Danzo.

"You know Kakashi with how you manage things, you are perfectly ready to be the Hokage. But remember, you are still their sensei and it is your responsibility to teach them", said Hiruzen.

"They all have potential to become great sir and I can see it but they are far from being a team. Sure after this they will become a cohesive unit but I will only teach them personally once when they start showing signs of self sacrifice for each other with teamwork", said Kakashi.

"A wise decision Kakashi but don't push them too far or else they will charge straight towards their demise", said Hiruzen.

"I agree but be sure to drill loyalty towards Konoha into their head since those two are already on flight risk and Haruno seems like she would do anything for the Uchiha", said Danzo.


	14. Goodbye Team 7

Sakura was exhausted and badly bruised after having a heavy taijutsu training session with Sasuke while Naruto was trying to completely master earth chakra as usual. Why Naruto was not following the training regime he himself proposed you may ask? The answer was simple; the council gave him hell if he even as much touched a hair on them. For nearly 3 months, he just gave them advice on chakra control, did D-rank missions with them and just continued on with his own training.

"Why don't you come fight us dobe or are you scared that we might beat you?" taunted Sasuke.

"Good job, Sasuke. You have finally admitted that your skill level in taijutsu is below mine and this should be your first step in actually surpassing me. True Sakura and you have progressed and I have to work hard to beat you both at once but I will come out victorious", said Naruto and went back to his training.

"Exactly why don't you fight us, Naruto? It was your idea after all. You fought us for 2 weeks, brutally if I say. So what happened?" asked Sakura.

"What happened you ask? If my life isn't hard enough, with me hurting you both during sparring the council was enraged at me and why wouldn't they be. After all I the _**"DEMON BRAT"**_ had hurt their last precious Uchiha and that bitch Haruno's daughter. They think I will destroy konohas's two of the brightest cadets who actually can make their name known through their efforts. Whereas when they see me, they don't see my talent. NO, to them I'm just a demon or a deterrent of war", said Narutoin a dark tone.

"Huh, a dobe like you to be a deterrent of war, is like saying that Shikamaru is a hyperactive kid", said Sasuke followed by Sakura's giggle.

"Oh, you think I'm joking. Well people have never taken me seriously anyway, so it's not new to me anyway. And since I'm the dobe and you have learned the tree climbing exercise, I have decided to stop your chakra control training. Now geniuses you can do whatever you want and just find me before you start our missions", said Naruto.

"We don't need to train under you to improve, Naruto-baka. Right Sasuke-kun", said Sakura to which Sasuke just grunted hnnnnn.

"Goodbye", said Naruto and went away.

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(At Hokage's Office)

"Yo, old man how do you do?" questioned Naruto.

"I'm fine Naruto-kun. So why are you not training with your team?" asked Hiruzen.

"What team are you talking about jiji? Our sensei just gives us advices and believes us to figure out everything on our own. One of my teammate is just too arrogant and the other one just follows him like a loyal pet. Just why did you assign me to such a team jiji?" asked Naruto.

"You know why I placed you with both of them Naruto. You three just can't find the proper balance to your team dynamics and it's the reason you three are not able to work properly as a team. As for your sensei, he is one of the best Konoha has to offer but for a team he has his own philosophy. Until you three can't meet his expectations he will not train any of you directly and that he has already told me", replied Hiruzen.

"So jiji, why don't you tell Sasuke the true reason why Itachi truly went rouge? If he knew maybe he will stop being a dick" asked Naruto.

"What do you know about the massacre, Naruto?" asked Hiruzen with a great sigh.

"I know what was made public but form my interaction with him and the things he told me completely contradict his own words which he spoke sincerely. In addition the pay check you write him every month and you asking me about the massacre makes me believe something else is going on behind the scenes", concluded Naruto.

"So what do you want Naruto to keep your suspicion in check?" asked Hiruzen.

"What do you mean jiji?" asked Naruto.

"Just cut to the chase Naruto. We both know how we blackmail each other. You take advantage of my soft spot for you and I take advantage of your desperation to know your family. So let me ask you again Naruto-kun, what do you want from me?" questioned Hiruzen.

"I want learn another nature chakra beside my natural affinity and your trick to master all five elements. I know you are the only person in the world to have achieved all four other natural affinities beside your alignment just through training when it is said to be impossible for a person to have all five elements. This is the reason the world hails you as the greatest ninjutsu expert, past and the future", said Naruto.

"You know Naruto-kun, my sensei Senju Tobirama-sama forbidded me to tell anyone how to master all the elements. The process is a dangerous one and if one is not careful you will die the most gruesome death. My friend tried to copy it and paid the price. His name was Jirobu, he was orphan, my senior and the one people thought would be the greatest ninjutsu expert but I started surpassing him at the age of 18 when I mastered 3 elements with my unique method when it took him 26 years to do so. So he overdid what I was doing under the tutoring of Tobirama-sensei and died from his brain bursting out. At that time his wife was pregnant but due to the bad news of his death she suffered from shock during her labour and died due to complication. Due to his jealousy, he and her wife were robbed of the chance the legend their child would become. His only child Jiraya became my student and was a dumb nut who was a pervert in mind, body and soul. Later as time progressed he calmed down, grew in intelligence, power, became a first class seal master and is considered the greatest infiltration and sabotage expert throughout the elemental nations. Funny thing is he became interested in infiltrating because he wanted to peep on women in onsen without getting caught and sabotage was just in his nature", told Hiruzen.

"Wait a minute, so you are telling me that the great Jiraya of the Sanin became so powerful because he was a pervert and wanted to peep on naked women", shouted Naruto not able control his disappointment in the man who trained his idol the fourth Hokage.

"Well not completely but yes that is one of the key reasons. Also never call him a pervert or you will be in for a great surprise, if you ever meet him. This entire aside do you really want to learn the method for mastering every elemental chakra Naruto-kun", asked Hiruzen with full seriousness.

"Hai Hokage-sama. I want to learn how to master every type of elemental chakra", replied Naruto.

"Okay then let's start with the theory. As you know there are five elemental affinities fire, wind, lightening, earth and water. Each element is stronger and weaker than one element, FireWind Lightening Earth Water Fire and Fire Water Earth Lightening Wind Fire. Usually one is naturally attuned with one element and some even two and that is called a kekkai genkai. Those who train in other element except their natural tend to train in element that is weaker than their own natural affinity. Within the cycle of elements it gets x10 times harder for each element, this way to learn the final element it gets x10, 000 times hard. This is the reason why even top class ninjas only learn to manipulate 2 elements at best. This is also the reason why kekkai genkai are celebrated among ninjas. There are two types of Kekkai genkai, first type of kekkai genkai which can also be said as the true kakkai genkai, can only be inherited genetically because it is a genetic mutation like Uchiha's Sharingan or Hyuuga's Byakugan. Second type of kekkai genkai can be called both artificial and genetic kekkai genkai because it is the manipulation of chakra nature. Mostly children inherit the chakra nature of their parents, so this type of kekkai genkai could be transferred genetically but since it is chakra nature manipulation even those who does not possess it could it if found the right balance between the two or more….

"Come on jiji, how to master elemental affinities not on kekkai genkai", said Naruto.

"Don't be like that Naruto, knowledge is knowledge. Who knows one day you could have a kekkai genkai, you always wanted the shitoamatsuki (dead bone pulse, Kimimaro's kekkai genkai) when you were young after Enma taught you about different Kekkai Genkai", replied Hiruzen.

"Hey I could have used it to scare the shit out of people for a prank", defended Naruto.

"Now, now calm down Naruto. I was finished with talking about Kekkei Genkai anyways. As you have learned how the difficulty increase as one tries to learn more chakra nature and with it comes more time taken to master the affinity. I started when I was 13, I learned every element when I was 32 and truly mastered every element when I was 47 years old. It should have taken much more time even my whole life shouldn't be enough but I cheated with a forbidden technique developed by my sensei known as the Shadow Clone Jutsu. It is a clone technique which divides the chakra into half between the clone and the original. When the clone is dispersed the memories of the clone is transferred to the original, in simple words what the clone learns you learn but this jutsu has a downside to it. If too much information is soaked too quickly by the original their brain could stop functioning by the overload and they could die. The technique is just a B-class jutsu but due to the danger it posses, it is classified as a kinjutsu. When you become a chunin, I'll permit you to learn the technique but first tell me your original affinity and just why you want to learn every elemental affinity", said Hiruzen.

"Well jiji, my original affinity is wind but since not many like me due to my situation and Shiba-sensei didn't know wind manipulation and to top it there are very few people to have wind affinity in Konoha so he taught me earth manipulation to defend myself. To why I wanted to learn every elemental affinity is not because I want to follow your footstep but just because it fascinates me", answered Naruto.

"Good answer Naruto. You know you should try to learn wind manipulation, it will greatly enhance your current skillset but remember wind being the most offensive is also the most difficult to master. So if you want to master any other affinity except wind then go for lightening since it is the easiest to learn but remember to use it properly one needs a creative mind and absolute control over mind if you don't want to fry yourself with it", said Hiruzen.

"One more question jiji. Just why do you favour me so much that you even let me blackmail you?" asked Naruto.

"You were supposed to be seen as a hero, my boy. When Minato sealed the Kyuubi within you at the cost of his life, his last words were - "This boy's name is Uzumaki Naruto and he is our true hero". I thought the village will see you as the hero as per Minato's wish and so I told them the truth but it backfired resulting in your current treatment. They hailed him as he was their saviour with an absolute belief in him but at his end it proved to be just a hoax to get under the good graces of Minato. You say I let you blackmail me that am true but just to a very little extent. I let you do it, so that you may grow a powerful ninja that you could become and because you are under my care till your guardians are ready to face you", said Hiruzen.


	15. Cost of Lying

"Will I be ever told of my ancestry, Hokage-sama?" asked Naruto.

"Till your guardians deem you worthy of defending yourself well maybe never", replied Hiruzen.

"Just tell me Hokage-sama, why do my life have to be controlled to such a degree by my so called guardians whom I even don't truly know myself? Is it because I'm a jinchuriki and if that is the reason then extract it from me, do whatever Konoha want with it and just release me from this so called independent and happy life", said Naruto with absolute calmness in his voice but from the looks he was giving Hiruzen indicated absolute hatred, anger and rage.

"Do you really want to die Naruto?" asked Hiruzen.

"If I can get out this living hell then yes. I WANT TO DIE", replied Naruto.

"What about your guardians?" asked Hiruzen.

"Doesn't mean jack shit to me", said Naruto.

"Think again Naruto. Do you really think they don't care about you? It is because of them you are still alive while I can only do basically nothing except keep the council off your back", reasoned Hiruzen.

"And what good it did? Me living in streets, treated worse than sewer rats, discriminated against and hunted down. I would rather preferred to dead as an infant rather than living this cursed life. If not for Anko and that other incident, I would have remained that dumb and cheerful kid who just wanted acceptance and would go to any lengths for it. We both know Sarutobi, you have become rather weak from what you once used to be but being pushed around by the council is where you should have drawn the line. This is a glorified village of mercenaries with you as its chief and if you can't control the bunch then just fucking retire old man", said Naruto.

"You shouldn't talk to your superiors with that tone Uzumaki but I couldn't have said it better. Now leave us and once you arrive at your hideout make sure to sign your name and put your fingerprints in your blood, in the summoning scroll Mitarashi Anko provided you", said Danzo.

"How do you know about that place, Danzo?" asked Naruto.

"I know about everything that concerns Konoha's security, my boy. And lucky for you are among the most valuable and the most threatening entity to my village. Now go away", said Danzo and Naruto went away.

"So what brings you here, Danzo?" asked Hiruzen.

"I'll get to the topic but first get us some privacy", replied Danzo. With that the ANBU evacuated and Hiruzen activated the Sound Barrier seal.

"Now speak old friend", said Danzo.

"He is growing impatient Hiruzen, after waiting for 15 years and our village is just pushing him to the edge. If not for Tenzo our village would have been history at his 13th birthday when those foolish Jonins tried to break him. Buckle up Sarutobi, war is on the horizon and I have a feeling this will be the harshest one Konoha will ever face but with our failing bodies, his strength will be vital if Konoha shall prevail", said Danzo.

"You know damn well Danzo why we don't tell him anything about them. He has no one to bound him to this village and even if we were just to tell him about his clan, there is a possibility he will leave Konoha bankrupt if he not abandon it", said Hiruzen.

"We have to take the risk Sarutobi, just Jiraya is not enough to keep the other villages intimidated while our numbers are quite low due to the Kyuubi, Tsunade still refuses to come back, Itachi just wants to die by Sasuke's hand and we don't know if Sasuke will ever achieve Itachi's level. The other villages are becoming more and more powerful. Kumo has A, Bee, and soon Yugito Ni and Darui will catch up to them. Iwa has Ohnoki, Deidara, Roshi, Han and young Kurotsuchi is quite a prodigy. Kiri is suffering from civil war and no matter which side prevails they will have quite a number of war veterans and you know war veterans are more dangerous than even S-ranked ninjas if used correctly after all that was the way we prevailed in Second Shinobi War. Suna has Chiyo, Rasa, Pakura and their jinchuriki is very good with what they are made for. Naruto is the answer to Konoha's survival and just think with his lifespan he will prove to be a very long term asset", explained Danzo.

"Okay then, get the Uzumaki temple of masks repaired. If we are going to do this then we are going to do this right. Next month we will go forward with the plan till then you are the acting Hokage Danzo, I have many things to take care of especially the academy. Let's see how the academy standards got so low these past few years", said Hiruzen.

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(With Naruto)

He went to his secret hideout situated near Uchiha Compound. It was just a small cave within a nearby hill. It was filled with nearly 6ft water and was used by many wild animals for water. It was the place Naruto learned to hunt but over the time he dug a tunnel through the pond to create a small space just for him but fortunately he found a huge natural cavity within the hill with natural ventilation. He closed the large gaps in its ceiling and reinforced the whole cave using earth manipulation. Now the result of his 3 years of efforts was a giant room with many escape routes, few natural ventilation, a king sized bed made by earth manipulation with the best quality mattress that he stole, a study with a small library filled with every useful information he was able to gather and the room was lit with seals. Now Naruto was no master and seals were difficult to learn as hell but to fulfill his needs he learned storage seals and illumination seals.

He went to his study, took out the snake summoning contract and signed it like Danzo instructed. Biting his thumb for blood he went through hand signs required gathering all the chakra he could muster and slammed his hands on the ground.

 _ **"SUMMONING JUTSU"**_ , and with that Naruto got summoned back to the snake realm: THE RYUUCHI CAVES.

(Ryuuchi Caves)

"Oh a new summoner it seems. My name is Naga and I'm The Great White Snake Sage, now introduce yourself young one", said Naga.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, genin of Konohagakure", replied Naruto.

"I don't like lies or half-truth human. You come to the snakes to be your allies yet you hide your true self and think we are to trust and assist you. Now introduce yourself properly human", scolded Naga.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, an orphan, genin of Konohagakure and the student of Hatake Kakashi. I have come to the snakes to get you as allies to the leaf one of the orders of a man named Shimura Danzo who is supported by Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Hokage of Konohagakure in this act", said Naruto.

"Good human but tell me why don't you fully tell me about yourself? Are you afraid that we won't help you because of it? Do you loathe your existence or its? Or do you refuse to tell anyone about your true self?" questioned Naga.

"How do you know about..

"About you being the Jinchuuriki of Kyuubi? This is what you were asking me right. I'm one of the few great sages in existence young one. I'm one of the few beings in existence who have achieved nearly perfect balance with nature and with that comes special perks or powers if you may. I can perceive the nature of any living being if I can sense its chakra. Yours indicate rage, hate, sadness but is overshadowed by forgiveness. In a sense you complete the one sealed within you who is a being of negative emotions which overshadows its little positive side", said Naga.

"Just what are you implying, Naga-sama?" asked Naruto.

"You are an intelligent child but you have the tendency to doubt everyone. I don't know anything about your life but from what I know about Jinchuuriki's they are ruthless and unforgiving. This isn't their choice but this is the way they become after all their conditioning. You seek a logical explanation about ones action unlike Orochimaru who seeks to learn about everything in existence. Tell me do you really want the snakes help?" asked Naga.

"No. I know one day I may require a summon but attacking with precision and subdue the enemy in a single blow is just not my way after all I am a brawler", answered Naruto.

"You will truly become someone great, Uzumaki Naruto. One needs a reason to their existence to become knowledgeable and powerful. Trust is the next vital part, without trust you will not grow and yet it becomes the downfall of many. Now give me your hand boy", ordered Naga and Naruto extended his left hand.

Naga dropped a drop of his poison on Naruto's hand and upon contact the poison etched an image of a snake coiling around Naruto's whole left arm with Jinchuuriki written in Kanji, all in black.

"This is your punishment for lying to me, even if you burned your arm that will still be there but if you ever require my council then send a pulse of your chakra into your tattoo and I'll reverse summon you. But beware this is just for council not a way for escaping. If you ever do that then I'll devour you myself. Now you may return boy", said Naga and with that Naruto was sent back to Konoha.

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(Next Day)

Team 7 was waiting for Kakashi in their regular training grounds. Naruto was there in his regular outfit but this time his whole left arm was covered in bandages form his wrists to his shoulders. Sasuke was brooding and Sakura for a change was doing tree climbing.

"Hello team. Sorry I got late but you see a little girls cat climbed on the tree and refused to come down, so I had to get her scared cat back to her. So Naruto, what happened to your left arm?" asked Kakashi.

"Well I tried to get a summoning clan to become my partner but just ended up injuring my left arm", replied Naruto but this caught Sasuke's interest.

"So which summoning clan were you trying to partner with, dobe?" questioned Sasuke.

"The Snakes", replied Naruto.

"Don't you lie, Naruto-baka. We all know that the Snake Contract was lost to Konoha with Orochimaru", said Sakura.

"Yes but that is not completely true. His apprentice stole the contract from him who was still loyal to Konoha but at her deathbed she gave it to me as my birthday present", said Naruto.

"Will you let me sign it, Uzumaki?" asked Sasuke.

"Why are you being so polite to me right now, duckbutt? Is it because I posses the legendary Orochimaru's summoning contract and you want it?" mocked Naruto.

"Don't mock Sasuke-kun, Naruto-baka. Unlike you, if he had tried they would have gladly accepted him", said Sakura.

"Now, now, there is no need to be hostile to each other. I have read reports of your training, so good job team. Sakura it seems you want to be a medic, well good choice. Naruto congratulation on mastering earth manipulation and Sasuke since you have asked instruction in Lightening Manipulation we will have one on one session after our C-ranked mission", said Kakashi.

"So we will be having our first C-ranked mission, Kakashi-sensei?" asked Sakura.

"Yes Sakura. Tomorrow you all gather outside Hokage Tower at 0600 hours sharp and remember this will be your last chance to prove yourselves to me. If you fail I will just teach you just one more thing and that will be me last time teaching you all anything. For Sasuke lightening manipulation, Sakura a proper taijutsu style and its basics and for Naruto what will you want?" asked Kakashi.

"What is your elemental affinity Kakashi-sensei?" asked Naruto.

"Lightening, Earth and Fire", answered Kakashi.

"Then the same as Sasuke. I too will learn Lightening Manipulation", replied Naruto.

"Very well, see you all tomorrow and be sure to pack for at least 2 weeks", said Kakashi and vanished.


End file.
